Catapulted Into Love
by A-iroha
Summary: An upset Lambo fires the ten year bazooka, sending Tsuna back in time, where he meets Giotto. With no clue on how to return back to his own time, Tsuna has no choice but to follow Giotto until the effects of the malfunctioning ten year bazooka wears off
1. The world of 400 years ago

**Pairing: **Giotto/Tsuna (G27)

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **An upset Lambo fires the ten year bazooka, sending Tsuna back in time, where he meets Giotto – who was a kind seventeen year old teenager trying to set up the vigilante group that would later become the core of the Vongola familgia. With no clue on how to return back to his own time, Tsuna has no choice but to tag along with Giotto until the effects of the malfunctioning ten year bazooka wears off.

**Disclaimer: **Katekyo Hitman Reborn does not belong to me

* * *

_Chapter 1 tells of the world of 400 years ago_

The banging against the door increased in intensity with every passing second and the huge piece of wood started to protest against the bolt holding it in place, on the verge of breaking apart.

"Shit. The door won't hold them back any longer! You have to start running, Giotto!"

"Sure," the blond agreed and immediately grabbed his childhood friend and started to sprint away. G blanched when he felt the tug and the wooden door split open into two, disintegrating into splinters when the guards trampled all over it in attempt to chase after them.

"Wha-? What do you think you are you doing?" G protested as he was dragged across the field. "If I don't stay behind to stop them, they would catch up with us soon enough!"

"And what makes you think that I'll allow you to stay behind all by yourself? We'll just have to deal with it when they catch up!"

"If you continue with such a carefree character, you won't survive long enough to start up that vigilante group you always wanted to create." G rolled his eyes and tried to pry Giotto's fingers off him. But there was no use to do any of that right now, since the lock holding the door close was damaged beyond repair – its existence wiped out from the crevices of history.

The duo skidded to a stop in the middle of the field. They were surrounded.

"Why don't we test out that theory of yours?" Giotto taunted as he pulled his gloves on and lighted his dying will flame.

"And why don't we see who kills the most number of enemies?" G challenged as he clicked the safety off his gun.

_o0o0o_

Yamamoto grinned as he pat Lambo on the head repeatedly like what he had been doing for the past five minutes. The baseball star got along very well with the kid – provided they were not playing games like catchall, or anything baseball related for that matter – and was the only one in Tsuna's house right now who was able to calm the five year old boy down (Nana was out on a short grocery shopping trip). "Stop crying and let Tsuna go, okay?"

"Must... tolerate..."

Tsuna tugged on Lambo, trying to pull the kid off him. What happened just now was only an accident! He didn't mean to knock into Lambo and make the child drop his chocolate pudding! Even though he offered him a new one, Lambo didn't want to accept it and continued to latch on to the poor brunet. "Come on, Lambo! Let go already! I need to go to school! Hibari-san will bite me to death if I'm late!"

"Must... to...le...rate..."

Gokudera watched the scene unfolding in front of him with anger and mild annoyance. There was no one, in this universe, who dared to oppose the Juudaime and get away with it. He, as the Juudaime's right hand man, would see to this personally. Finally, the silver haired teen snapped and pulled out his dynamites. "You stupid cow! When Juudaime tells you to let go, you better let go!"

Blasted across the room, Lambo instantly burst into tears and pulled a deadly weapon out of his hair. The young boy then proceeded to ram the it against the wall with the fastest speed he could manage, and didn't stop until a large crack appeared in the side of the purple object.

"Wa-Wait!" Tsuna gasped in fear at the bazooka. He had faced many troubles regarding that weapon – one of which included him chasing ten years later Lambo all over town to save him from the evil clutches of Bianchi, who conveniently assumed that the man was Romeo, her ex-boyfriend – because Adult Lambo just happened to look _exactly _like him. "Don't take that dangerous wea..."

Everyone watched in shock as the ten year bazooka slipped out of Lambo's hands and flew towards Tsuna at alarming speed.

"...pon...out..." Tsuna trailed off as he stood rooted to the floor, unable to move a finger. Gokudera pulled out a dynamite and threw it over in attempt to blast the weapon away, but he was a second too late. Pink smoke, the colour that represented Bovino familgia of which Lambo was from, filled the room. "JUUDAIME!"

"TSUNA!" Yamamoto called, when the room cleared but the Vongola Decimo was nowhere to be found.

_o0o0o_

"Damn," G cursed under his breath as he panted, stamina already on the verge of running out. "How much more reinforcements does that stupid old geezer have?"

They were currently trying to escape from the ridiculously large mansion grounds after they succeeded in freeing the innocent prisoners that the owner of the mansion had taken. Giotto and G had volunteered to become decoys, so there was no mistaking that the civilians have already escaped.

"Now then," G seethed as he reloaded his gun. It wasn't normal for him to get this agitated, but his shirt was soaked through with sweat, caked with dirt, and it was just plain _uncomfortable._ Heck, he wanted to take a stupid fucking bath like... right now. But it was impossible because those silly guards were like cockroaches that spawned at an impossible rate and simply refused to die out. "How should we get out of this mess?"

Giotto sighed, his dying will flame flickering and on the verge of dying out. He tried to keep it hidden, but even he was getting tired. Really, he hated all forms of physical related stuff, fighting included. "If only something would drop down from the sky to distract them enough for us to escape..."

"Like such a thing would ever happen," G retorted angrily. "Can you stop thinking of such useless things and start to fight seriously?"

Giotto growled a little under his breath, dissatisfied that his best friend was trying to come up with another idiotic method to goad his confidence and motivation to fight, and was about to re-light his dying will flame when there was a loud scream coming from above. Frantically, both men tilted their heads so they could have a better view up at the sky.

"What the?" G stared up at the sky where he saw something falling down towards them. "It can't be..."

_o0o0o_

Falling into the future was one thing, but falling from the sky was another thing. _What the heck was his future self doing so high up in the sky?_

"No way!" Tsuna gasped and start to flail around helplessly when he realised that he was going to fall right into a battelfield. _Was he going to get impaled by all that spears? Or be stabbed through by all that swords? Maybe he'll get shot by a stray bullet and-! NO WAY! He was far too young to die!_ _He only turned 16 yesterday! _Tsuna shut his eyes and started screaming. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Instead of feeling his half of his bones break when he smashed into the hard sandy ground, Tsuna felt himself landing onto a soft and squishy object. There was a groan coming from below him and the brunet looked down to find himself sitting on an unconscious man who appeared to be in his late thirties.

"Is that another enemy? Why did he fall from the sky?"

"Wouldn't normal people be dead already? Is he even human?"

Tsuna felt the atmosphere around him darken a little. _Was he really going to be pulled into the battle after all? Right after he arrived? What the hell was his future self doing before they switched?_

Making use of the distraction, Giotto immediately grabbed hold of Tsuna's hand and hauled the brunet to his feet and proceeded to escape out of the disastrous situation.

* * *

**Author's notes: **I am well aware that G27 fics on Tsuna going back into time are pretty common, but this is one of the types of G27 fics that I like, so I decided to write one – like join in the fun, or something like that you know... Haha.

I'm not having any Italian sentences in this fanfiction, though specific words might appear (seriously doubt so)... Since I'm Japanese and have never studied that language before, I shall refrain from using it in case I make any mistakes. Therefore, I shall make it seem like Tsuna has spoken and knew the meaning of every single word in Italian and can fluently speak in that language! Yes, I'm taking the easy way out ^^" And if you were wondering as to why Tsuna is thought that he was falling into the future, he doesn't know that the bazooka malfunctioned and he is currently in the past. Yet.


	2. A new bond formed

**KarinMaaka07 **Thank you very much. I'm really glad that you enjoyed it ^^ **Breathless02** It's updated, and I am re-motivated to continue this on ;D **ForsakenSilverShadowArcher13** G27 is my OTP, and I will kill for it. Okay, maybe not? I'll be sure to keep up my good work and I really doubt that I will give in to those Update Please request. I do have my own update schedule. **ezcap1st** It sure did! Well, i wonder what other wishes Giotto might come up with... **pokermaniac039 **Thank you very much XD **moonray9 **Can I say that I have the exact same response as you did? Even though I'm the one typing it out and all. OTL **AnimeOtakuDeGozaru **It's still in the humor part. Filling it up with humor first. Hope I don't have a really weird sense of humor though. **Seme-Yandere S**ame! G27 is my OTP, totally, and they're so awesome together. Not that I normally group 2 people who look almost identical together (this is an exception) **Darkmoon Fleur **Thanks so much. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. **Lascka** Yep, I love Tsuna's time-travelling into the past fanfiction too. Lambo can't die yet, not that I'm not itching to kill him. He still has other parts of the plan to fulfill. **VirguleAddict **Thank you for being my fan ^^ I just started learning English at the age of seven, which was um... about eight years ago. So I'm not exactly a beginner at learning English. **10th Squad 3rd Seat **Yep, will do! **Kichou **Thanks. **Useless knowledge **Haha. Nice compliment. Thanks a bunch. **Azalie-Kauriu **Great to know that you like it. I hope that you will enjoy this update ;D **angela **You have the same name as my darling cousin. Yep, yep, G27! **Kimihearts **;D Compliments and reviews are always appreciated. I'll definitely continue this, thanks for the motivation. And, I'm totally fine . Don't worry, though I'm glad you did! LMAO.

_Chapter 2 tells of a new bond formed_

"I'm back!" Giotto announced when he flung open the door and entered the small building while dragging a frightened and completely clueless Tsuna after him. The trio had managed to lose the whole crowd of pursuers while they were escaping. However they had to make a large detour in order to do so and this caused a delay in their schedule and plans. But in any case, they had finally reached their destination – a small inn where people with the same ideals as Giotto and G were currently residing in.

The minute the doors opened, the loud chatter coming from inside ceased for a minute before coming back at full force.

"Ciao!"

"Welcome home, Gio!"

"Was the plan a success? Were all the innocent commoners saved?"

"Of course! Since everyone did the planning with me, it was bound to be a success!" Giotto grinned at everyone present in the room as Tsuna hid behind his back, feeling more than a little dizzy from all the rapid change in environment. Until a moment ago, he was being dragged around in the quiet streets, and now, the loud voices and the heavy smell of beer and tobacco was making him feel increasingly uncomfortable.

Leaning against the doorframe, a pissed looking G lit up a cigarette and took a long drag from it. "As if. We almost died back there. And it was all because of your-"

"That's why I told you that there was no way that I could have left you all alone to face such a large number of enemies!"

"And what good would it be if you died?" G retorted, a sharp edge in his voice. "Besides, it was part of the plan for me to divert their attention while you escape!"

"Now now," Asari walked out from behind the counter, instantly taking on the role of being the peacemaker. "Both of you, stop arguing already. Don't you two realise that you guys are always having the same argument after every mission?"

G threw his cigarette on the floor and stepped on it roughly. "Don't you dare to poke your nose into this when you didn't even help out at all, you stupid music freak! All you did was sit there and serve tea to us when we were planning out the entire rescue operation. So you have no right to judge anything at all-!"

Asari sighed. "If you look at this rationally, G-"

"_You _are the one who aren't thinking logically!" G spat through gritted teeth. He was angry and frustrated, and that Japanese bastard wasn't helping him keep calm at all, if he wasn't making it become worse. "Do you know how serious the whole matter would become if Giotto died in that mission just now? Do you understand what it would mea-?"

"G-G-Giotto?" Tsuna's jaw dropped when he heard and recalled that the name was the Vongola Primo's, hence making the link easily with the familiar yet complicated and completely gorgeous tattoo on G's face. Yes, it was definitely something that Gokudera would love to have.

_NO WAY! If Primo was here, does it mean that instead of being sent ten years into the future, he was sent into the past? And so far back as well! No wonder he fell from the sky!_

However, the most shocking thing for Tsuna was not the fact that he was sent four centuries back into the past, but the fact that he was actually speaking to his great-great-great grandfather. Not that he never did so before, but this was his very first time speaking to a Giotto that was _not _in Hyper Dying Will Mode.

He turned to the blond teenager and pointed a trembling finger at him. "So, d-does that mean that y-you are the person that founded Vongola?"

Giotto raised an eyebrow in confusion as he repeated what Tsuna just said. "I... I am the person who founded... clams?"

"H-HUH?" Tsuna stammered as his face heated up from embarrassment. There was no doubt that everyone in the room was staring blankly at him._Could it be possible that the Vongola familgia wasn't created yet? Ugh! Just how long exactly, was he sent back in time? To what extent was the ten year bazooka malfunctioning?_

Tsuna shook his head in denial, trying quickly to mitigate the misunderstanding before it could get any worse than it already was. However, being the dame-Tsuna that he was, there was no possible way that he would be able to think coherently when dealing with such stressful situations.

"N-No! It's just that I... I think that you look like a clam!"

The atmosphere in the room darkened rapidly as a depressed Giotto staggered to the nearest empty chair and sank into the seat, his head bent and looking very miserable. " A clam? Me? I... I look like... a clam...?"

Everyone in the inn instantly burst into peals of laughter, each of them having varied responses to Tsuna's sudden mindless blab.

"Haha! Giotto looking like a clam? Now, _that's _a new one!"

"I didn't expect the kid to say something like that at all! He's so interesting!"

"HIEEEEEE!" Tsuna freaked out and unintentionally let out one of his squeaks when he felt killer intent directed at him from a certain redhead in the same room. "I-I didn't mean it like that! I didn't mean it like that at all!"

_o0o0o_

Gokudera crouched on the ground, busy banging his fist against the tiles as he muttered out a long string of curses. "Juudaime... Where are you right now... Juudaime... Sorry for being unable to protect you at the most crucial moments... I'm a failure as your right hand man... I'm not worthy to be beside you... I'm not even fit to be called your friend..."

"Now, now," Yamamoto laughed. "Cheer up! We still have to get to school! There's only seven minutes before school officially starts."

"How can you still think about going to school when we don't even know where Juudaime's whereabouts are?" Gokudera thundered while he stormed over to Lambo who was still sobbing and shaking continuously from the shock of the events that just occured and picked the kid up by the neck. "Spit it out, you stupid cow! Where did you send Juudaime to?"

Yamamoto tried his best to stop Gokudera from strangling the poor child to death. "Well, Tsuna would come back soon. The effects of the bazooka only lasts five minutes right?"

"Well, it malfunctioned!" Gokudera snapped and pointed at the clock on the wall to emphasize his point. "It's way past five minutes already! And Juudaime didn't switch with his ten years later self! This means that he was most probably not sent to that time frame! As things are right now, we have no idea what happened to him! What if it becomes another situation like the one with Byakuran?"

Reborn jumped up onto Gokudera's shoulder and gave the boy a kick at the side of his head which shut him up effectively. "Keep silent, Gokudera. Even if we reason out the entire issue, we will still have no way of bringing Tsuna back if we don't find out exactly which time frame he was sent to."

The Arcobaleno glanced at Lambo who was currently getting a tough scolding from I-pin. "For now, let's show Giannini the bazooka that hit Tsuna and have him investigate it thoroughly. We'll discuss our plans after the results come out."

_o0o0o_

"Giotto," G called when he spotted his friend on his way up to the only spare room in the inn, where the new kid that just arrived was supposed to be staying in right now. "Are you sure that it is okay for us to let that kid remain here? We don't even know whether he's an ally or a foe yet! For all we know, he might even be a spy!"

Giotto sighed. "That's true, but Tsunayoshi-kun doesn't seem to be someone bad." He remembered how sincere the boy's eyes were when he was trying to explain himself, even though what he did was not considered to be a big deal at all. "You are just too paranoid, G."

"And what do you base his innocence on?" G challenged, upset that instead of him, Giotto trusted that brat that he met less than half a day ago more.

"My hyper intuition," the blond grinned, shooting his redheaded friend a thumbs-up before continuing with the remainder of the short walk towards Tsuna's room. "Now then, it's getting late, so I guess I should go check up on him already."

_o0o0o_

Tsuna fidgeted nervously as he sat on the edge of the bed. Although the room he was assigned to was smaller, dustier and looked less lived-in than the other rooms he had seen in the inn, Tsuna didn't especially mind. In fact, he was glad that he even had a place to stay at. God knows what might have happened if the person he met when he first reached this timeframe was not Giotto but some other evil child abuctor.

Well, he probably would have returned back to his rightful time frame sooner or later, but the question was when. As far as he was concerned, five minutes had long since passed. Besides, since the ten year bazooka malfunctioned, there was no way for Tsuna to correctly predict when he would finally be able to return home.

Two sharp raps came from the other side of the door and Tsuna opened it to see Giotto's kind smiling face. "Is everything okay in there? Sorry that we don't have a better room than this. It's the only spare room left."

"Don't say that. I should be the one apologising. Sorry for the trouble that you had to take to prepare this room for me at such short notice," Tsuna apologised sincerely.

Giotto ruffled the brunet's hair gently. "It's okay. Since you are my brother."

"B-B-BROTHER?" Tsuna exclaimed. _What did Giotto-san mean by brother? Did he look like the Primo's long lost sibling in any way?_

Taking a step back due to the sudden shock he received, Tsuna tripped over his own feet and started to fall backwards.

Reacting immediately to the situation, Giotto tried to help the falling brunet regain his balance but he tugged a little too hard and Tsuna ended up falling forward instead – right into Giotto's arms.

After one long minute of feeling his heart pounding in his chest at an abnormally quick pace, Tsuna immediately pulled away and watched as the blond slowly regained his composure.

Giotto looked away, his face appearing to be slightly red as he quickly said something in attempt to reduce the awkwardness in the atmosphere. "T-That's because Asari thinks that you look a little like me, so I just... Anyway, it's just a thought! I'm sorry if you don't like the idea!"

Feeling the blood rush up to his face and making him turn even redder than before, Tsuna quickly stared down at the floor and did not dare to look up._So now, apart from being his ancestor, Giotto-san was also his brother. Great, just great._

"I-I don't exactly hate the idea... G-Gio-nii..."

* * *

**Author's notes: **Thank you for the numerous people taking time to review chapter one and actually putting this fic as a favourite! It really gave me a lot of encouragement to continue with it! Thank you for reading and please continue to review for this fic :D


	3. The small light of hope in a bleak past

**VirguleAddict **I'm sure Asari doesn't mind it at all. And I'll put the communication barrier to good use, thanks for the suggestion. I really appreciate it. **Breathless02 **Giotto is seventeen. And Tsuna is sixteen. **Priimoe **Yep, I think Giotto died with that one little innocent sentence too ^^ I thought that it would be fun to explore thie side of Giotto that few people have written before ! **Kichou **Well G would probably have killed Tsuna if Giotto wasn't there *shifty eyes* **Mel-Chama ** Thank you very much. I'm glad that you enjoyed this because I had fun writing this too. **NoName** The title? Well, Tsuna is practically 'Catapulted' into the past, almost 400 years. And we all know that he will fall in love with Giotto very, very soon. Yes, they will know of Tsuna's origins soon. But not so soon because I need to have them build up their trust first or no one will continue believing Tsuna after his secret is revealed. rThank you very much for liking this. I hope that you like this new update too. a**nimebaka14 **L-Longer chapters? I'll try my best! LOL **ezcap1st **Gio-nii... *melts* k**imihearts **Yes, this is before Vongola familgia was created and I felt that it would provide a new insight on Giotto's personality. Hope I didn't make him too OOC, not that he had a lot of his personality reveled in the anime or manga yet. I love the primo family too... let's say, almost as much as I like the Decimo's. **SakuraHaruno9** I-Imagine Giotto with a clam as his face... or a clam with a a tuft of blond hair! Pfft. Okay, I'll take back my words. Don't. Imagine. It. Because you will probably regret it later it on.

_Chapter 3 tells of a small light of hope in a bleak past_

"Asari-san," Tsuna called as he made his way over to the counter, feeling bad for bothering the man who was busy preparing breakfast for all thirty occupants of the inn. "Do you know where I can buy some cloth? My sleeve tore when I was in a small fight the other day."

Yes, he was speaking the truth – Lambo had clung onto Tsuna desperately refused to let go, causing the sleeve to tear with his violent and continuous tugging.

"Cloth? If you need a shirt, you can just borrow one from-" Asari trailed off when he realised that there was no way that the people in the inn would have clothes that would be able to fit Tsuna. They were all too big. "Can you wait a while more? Once I finish up my work here, I'll bring you over to the fabric store."

"E-Eh? There's no need for you to bring me there !" Tsuna protested. "I can go there myself!"

Asari looked at the pile of work he had to do and felt extremely tempted to agree with Tsuna. "Are you sure that you will be alright all by yourself? There are a lot of criminals and rioters around here recently..."

"I'll be fine," Tsuna assured him. "I'll be sure to stay out of the alleyways and keep to the main streets. Besides, I don't think that they are so brave as to attack people in broad daylight."

Asari nodded. "The fabric store is just two streets away and the front door is painted in bright green so you won't miss it."

After promising Asari to return home as soon as possible, Tsuna darted out of the inn and sprinted down the streets to his destination as quickly as he could.

_o0o0o_

Three sharp raps sounded on the other side of the door before it was roughly flung open.

"Giotto! How long do you intend to sleep?"

"What do you want?" The blond yawned as he sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes wearily. He hated waking up before 9 am. And that was because he was _not_ a morning person. At all. "I swear that if you just woke me up to talk about the duration of my naps, I'll kill you persona-"

G interrupted Giotto's rantings rudely. "The owner of the mansion that we attacked last night bribed the police to find our location. They are currently attacking innocent civilians. And from what I heard, they are taking all the injuries silently and haven't revealed our location yet."

Giotto's eyes widened at the news he just received. He couldn't believe that he was actually thinking of sleep when other people were getting injured for his sake. "Where? Where are the police attacking right now?"

"Just two streets away, at the fabric store," G stated and Giotto clenched his fists tightly.

He remembered that when he and G were younger, they used to run all around town. Every evening, they would never fail to pass by the same bright green door and Piero would always call them in for a cup of tea and treat any wounds that they might have gotten during the day.

But now, instead of protecting the innocent civilians like they should, those government lapdogs were doing the exact opposite and causing harm to the people.

The same people that cared for and protected him.

"Let's go," Giotto ordered as he pulled his cloak around himself and strode off towards the door. "This time for sure, we'll chase those corrupted officials out of this town."

_o0o0o_

Tsuna held on to the shirt he chose, waiting impatiently in the queue. There was only one person in the queue in front of him, but he wasn't purchasing anything. In fact, it seemed to Tsuna like he was purposely ignoring his presence while continuing to chat with the cashier.

"Excuse me," Tsuna started but it didn't seem like the cashier heard him. The old man was too engrossed in the conversation with the other guy. "I would like to-"

All of a sudden, there was a loud crash coming from outside the shop. The glass windows shattered and the the wooden front door broke and splinters of wood flew into the room.

After the shocking incident, Tsuna opened his eyes to see the guy in front of him, who failed to dodge in time, fall to the ground in a pool of blood. It took almost a full minute before Tsuna got over the shock of seeing someone dying in front of him and finally calmed down enough to speak. "What just happened?"

The old man sitting behind the counter walked out as quickly as he could and wrapped a large piece of white cloth around the body. "They just set off one of those things they called a bomb... They took him..."

"Bomb?" Tsuna questioned, confused. Did bombs even exist 400 years ago? Of course, the effect of the bomb that he just witnessed was much weaker than what he had previously saw in his own time frame but still...

"He was a good boy," the old man continued as if Tsuna never spoke. "Never did anything wrong or evil... But even so, they killed him... This is the truth of the society we live in right now... There's no law – no law because the government and police officers are breaking them all... There's nothing left for us commoners to break anymore..."

_o0o0o_

Loud screams of help resounded around the area and the air was heavy with the pungent scent of blood.

Even as Giotto and G stood there watching, the police officers were still continued to beat up the innocent civilians. And there was one particular scene that Giotto couldn't ignore.

The dying will flame on Giotto's forehead sprung to life as he flew over to the police officer who was about to kick a young boy and punched the officer across the face instead. His anger and the flames added on to his destructive power and the man in the blue uniform flew backwards into a wall where a satisfying crack was heard.

"Thank you for saving me, big brother!"

Giotto turned to see the kid looking up at him with a large smile on his face and immediately bent down so that he was of the same height as the boy. "No problem. Are you hurt anywhere?"

The child shook his head vigorously. "No! You helped me before the bad guy could hit me!"

Giotto grinned widely as he patted the boy on his head gently. "Good! Big brother promise you that he will definitely chase the rest of the bad guys away too, so can you go hide somewhere safe until big brother finishes his job?"

"Yes!"

After making sure that the boy was safe, Giotto straightened up and the dying will flame came back to life on his forehead.

"G, I can't forgive them for doing this. The police are harming everything that is dear to us. They are hurting all the people who cared for us. That, I cannot forgive, and I know you can't either," Giotto muttered softly but he was sure that the other could hear him. "Let's start the fight. We'll fight to protect the lives that are left."

Upon hearing his childhood friend announce the start of the fight, G immediately pulled his gun out from the inside pocket of his jacket and fired it. A unsuspecting officer standing ten meters away at G's right fell to the ground heavily, blood pouring from the gaping gunshot wound on his head.

"I'll take the left," Giotto told him and managed to knock out five of the men in one single hit, rescuing seven civilians in the process.

No words had to be said after that. G turned towards the right and started firing his gun, killing off the officers who thought that it was a good idea to seek shelter behind various objects. It was precisely at times like this that G's skills were of utmost importance – he had an excellent aim and never missed his target.

_o0o0o_

"Looks like you beat me to it again, even though I rushed here directly after I received the news. How do the news travel to you that fast anyway?"

"Cozart!" Giotto smiled at the sight of his red haired friend. "Are you here to help me?"

Cozart chuckled lightly. "Help? There's nothing left for me to do. You saved everyone again."

"Saved?" Giotto's face fell at the word and he gestured at the ruined state of the town. "I didn't save anything at all. If only I arrived a little earlier..."

G kicked one of the uniformed men in the ribs. "It's not your fault, Giotto. If anything, _these_ people are the ones at fault. Imbeciles."

"I love this town," Giotto continued, speaking sadly. "It's a poor town but it shines like the sun... Everyone is kind and happy and I like their smiles... How long, how long more do I have to wait before I can finally create the vigilante group?"

"What are you saying?" Cozart asked, confused. "Didn't you already start the vigilante group already?"

Giotto blinked. "No, I haven-"

"Giotto, a vigilante group isn't one that exist in name. It is a place where people with the same noble ideals gather and fight together to protect the things and people that they love. It is an organisation which exists to protect the innocent commoners and fight for their sake. Haven't you been doing all of these already? So then, Giotto, how can you say that you haven't started the vigilante group yet?"

The blond blinked at the supportive and encouraging smile that his friend had on. "Cozart, you..."

Suddenly, G moved between the two of them and pointed a gun at the figure in the building behind Cozart. "Who's there?"

A familiar brunet stepped out from the dark shadows and smiled awkwardly.

"Tsunayoshi-kun?" Giotto asked, shocked at seeing him here. "What are you doing here?"

Tsuna slipped his bottle of pills and gloves back into his back pocket, glad for once that he had slower reflexes and haven't gotten into Hyper Dying Will Mode yet. "Because my old clothes were torn so I came here to buy a new shirt."

Chuckling, Cozart put a hand on G's hand and lowered it so that the deadly weapon was pointing at the ground instead. "Giotto, why don't I remember that you mentioned to me about having a brother before?"

"Because he isn't my brother!" Giotto answered.

Tsuna watched as the two men continued to speak. He was feeling a little left out although it was clear that they were speaking about him.

After giving Giotto a thumbs-up, Cozart made his way over to the brunet. "Nice to meet you, I'm Shimon Cozart."

"M-My name is Sawada Tsunayoshi!" Tsuna introduced himself as politely as he could. "N-Nice to meet you too!"

Cozart laughed at Tsuna's nervousness. "Okay, since you are the last one to join in, you'll get to choose where we eat our lunch, Tsuna!"

Hearing the familiar version of his name being said, Tsuna couldn't help but smile a little. However, that smile quickly turned sad when he remembered the promise he made earlier that day. "I can't. I promised Asari-san that I'll be back immediately after I bought my shirt."

Cozart chuckled. "It doesn't matter. I'm sure Giotto would explain to him later why you were late."

Giotto pointed to the shirt that was dyed red in Tsuna's hand. "Besides, Tsuna, it's not like you can wear that shirt. We'll go shopping after we finish eating."

"B-But I-" Tsuna protested. He didn't like making people worried about him, although it seemed as if his clumsiness and no-good nature had people worrying about him on a daily basis. This was probably also part of the reason why Tsuna preferred to avoid situations which would make others worry about him as much as he could.

"I'll go back to the inn and tell the music freak that you are out with Giotto and Cozart," G volunteered reluctantly.

Giotto ruffled his childhood friend's crimson locks playfully. "Thanks, G."

Glaring at Giotto darkly, G whacked his hand away. "Tch. Don't mention it."

_o0o0o_

Tsuna sat on his seat as he waited patiently for the risotto he ordered to arrive. They were currently at a small eatery at the opposite end of the town, which was not affected by the violence of the police and everyone were still performing their daily activities as usual.

"Hey Giotto," Cozart sipped at his drink. "How long do you intend to put off the naming of your vigilante group?"

Giotto sighed at the reminder. "It's not that I want to put it off but I can't think of a good name right now. I don't want a name that only sounds nice. I want a name with meaning behind it."

Tsuna perked up at Giotto's words. Last night, he had made the huge mistake of saying out the word 'Vongola' and because of this, the entire Vongola familgia might have its name changed. So, in other words, if Tsuna wanted to make history right again, this might be his one and only chance.

And the good thing was that Giotto wasn't looking for something too complicated.

Speaking the truth, Tsuna had spent many nights lying awake worrying about the important fights that would inevitably occur the next day and would always think spend a few hours thinking about the reason why the Primo would name the familgia as Vongola. And after spending all the long hours on this topic, Tsuna came up with a rather good reason.

"What about Vongola?" Tsuna offered. "Just like how a clam protects the precious meat inside itself, you guys are trying to protect what this town which is so important to you."

Tsuna took in a deep breath when he saw Giotto looking at him blankly, fearing that his point might have came across as too immature and didn't make sense. He heaved a sigh of relief mentally when his suggestion was accepted.

"What a pretty meaning," Giotto smiled kindly at the brunet, totally forgotting the fact that he was compared to a clam the previous night. "Thank you, Tsuna. I shall name it Vongola then."

Red coloured Tsuna's cheeks while he stared into the pair of hypnotizing cerulean orbs.

However, that spell was broken when Cozart lifted his cutlery high in to the air and yelled – "Alright! As respect to Giotto's formation of his vigilante group, I swear that I'll never eat clams again!"

The waitress who was carrying the tray of food over to them glared darkly down at Cozart when she heard what he said.

"Excuse me, sir, but does that mean that you are not going to eat what you ordered?"

* * *

**Author's notes: **Yay! And that's another chapter done (: I tried desperately to include some humor at the end since the front part of this chapter was kind of... depressing. Sorry if it failed... Nevermind! (Starts her I like Shimon Cozart chant) Thank you for all the reiviews and please, uh, review again?


	4. Deadly relations

_Chapter 4 tells of how relationship, fights, and wounds are related_

"Giannini," Reborn leapt up on the table lightly and faced the plump man, his look cold and expressionless. "How did the research go? Did you find anything useful? Exactly which era was that useless idiot sent to?"

"I haven't found out anything much yet. Please give me a little more time," Giannini pleaded.

"It's already been half a day," Reborn mentioned curtly and Giannini felt a lump form in his throat due to the hitman's death glare directed straight at him.

"There are too many shady parts about the ten year bazooka that I have to uncover first before I can come to a conclusion," Giannini tired to explain. "If I don't, I might get the wrong information about the current situation the Boss is in! Or there might be an accident and Boss would be trapped between the two timeframes and be unable to return!"

Reborn sighed as he jumped down from the table, his feet touching the ground. It was not like the Arcobaleno was really pining all his hopes on Giannini. It was a known fact that Giannini from ten years later was not to be trusted as an efficient mechanic and researcher, let alone a Giannini from ten years ago.

Reborn slowly made his way over to the door and paused for a moment before leaving the room. "I don't care about all the unknown mysteries of the ten year bazooka. If you can't find out and tell me which timeframe that dame-Tsuna was sent to by the end of this week, I'll be bringing the bazooka over to the Bovino familgia in Italy for them to investigate."

"R-Right!" After learning that his existence and knowledge was considered to be dispensable by Reborn, Giannini found his resolve back and immediately returned to his work at hand after Reborn left the room. "I'll definitely be sure to solve it before the time limit! Please allow me to have the honor of searching for the whereabouts of the Boss!"

_o0o0o_

Tsuna sat on a wooden stool in a corner of the shop as he watched Giotto chatting amiably with the young shopkeeper. The owner of the shop was an extremely beautiful eighteen year old female with her long light brown hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.

Unfortunately for Tsuna, he was seated a little too far than he fancied, too far to hear the conversation between the two people. And they were speaking so softly as if they didn't intend to let anyone else hear what they were saying.

"Heh, Giotto is really popular, isn't he?" Cozart commented as he pulled another stool over and sat down beside Tsuna. "Are you jealous?"

Tsuna's jaw dropped at Cozart's assumption. "E-EHHHH? WHAT? NO!"

Cozart raised an eyebrow in doubt, smirking slightly. "Really?"

"O-Of course! W-Why would I b-be jealous?" Tsuna denied, bright pink dusting his cheeks.

"Well, I thought from the first look that you and Giotto were more than friends and brothers," Cozart laughed heartily, reminding Tsuna a little of Yamamoto. "Guess Giotto would have to work a little harder."

_o0o0o_

"So the head of the police forces here retreated to the neighbouring town?" Giotto leaned against the counter while he asked the young shopkeeper, Adel, a series of questions.

Adel nodded, smiling slightly even though the topic they were speaking about was grave. Giotto had asked for her to make this exchange of information appear to the others like they were having a friendly chitchat.

Even though they were supposedly in a rural town in Italy, it was also possible for the government officials to suddenly decide to check up on this town. But, it was also because that this was a rural town that Giotto had to resort to using an informer to gain the knowledge he needed.

"Are you sure that they wouldn't be returning here?"

"Fairly sure," she confirmed.

"Great. And if you don't mind, I'll be leaving now," Giotto grinned, tossing a silver coin over to the female who caught it deftly between her fingers.

Adel shrugged. "Do as you wish. I'll call for you once more news about the government and police comes in."

_o0o0o_

As quick as the whole day's events might have seemed, it took quite a bit of effort in finding a proper shop selling clothes and travelling between towns also wasted a lot of precious time.

Just hours ago, Giotto and Tsuna parted form Cozart in the neighbouring town since the red haired man decided that he desperately needed to return home to solve some pressing problems regarding his work and Giotto wanted to go back to the inn as soon as possible since they spent more than half the day outside already.

Once back in the inn, Giotto spoke mainly with G and Asari.

"You took way too long," G complained while lighting a cigarette. "How are you going to start the vigilante group officially if you keep putting off all the paperwork?"

Giotto sighed and leaned against the counter, taking a sip from the cup of juice. "I'm not putting it off! It's just that... I can't see the point for me to sign paper after paper when all their contents are similar! Why can't those creeps just hire a robot to sign all the crappy papers they need?"

"Then it defeats the purpose!" G snapped. "You are supposed to _know_ and _understand_ the contents of the papers that you are signing!"

"But the problem is that the contents of the papers are all-"

"That's why I told you that you must-"

Asari stepped in front of Tsuna and made his way towards the two quarrelling teenagers. "Now now, don't you think you should stop arguing?"

G glared darkly at him. "Shut your trap, you idiotic music freak!"

"What did you say?" Asari emitted a dark aura and cracked his knuckles.

"Wa-Wait," Giotto muttered, trying to move away from them when someone punched him across the face.

Tsuna stood rooted to the ground as he watched the rest of the people present in the inn cheer loudly at the sudden start of the brawl and quickly joined in the fight one after another.

_o0o0o_

As much as a friendly fight once in a while might be fun, Giotto didn't really like getting injured.

Fortunately for him, he got away from the fight simply with several bruises and scrapes. It could have been worse.

And unfortunately, that meant that he was still healthy enough to do his dreaded paperwork.

Giotto sighed.

Although he hated to plan and organise things, he knew that all of those were inevitable if he wanted to start the vigilante group officially. And it didn't seem like he had much of a choice seeing as G had pointed a gun at his head and practically commanded him to complete the entire stack of paperwork before ten the next morning, _or else_.

Giotto shuddered. G could be really scary when he wanted to appear to be so.

The blond sat down on the chair and grabbed several pieces of papers from the tall stack and started to skim through the contents quickly before signing on the line provided and yawned. _Looks like he had to pull an all nighter tonight._

However, it seemed as though God had decided to reward him a little for his resolve.

A series of unsteady footsteps echoed around before knocks sounded from the other side of the door. Certain that it was Asari bringing up a cup of coffee to him , Giotto called for the person to enter.

"I brought you a cup of coff-" Tsuna muttered but his words ended with a loud cry. Tsuna fell forward and the tray crashed to the ground, the contents of the cup narrowly missing the pile of paperwork. Giotto rushed forward and helped Tsuna up, checking to see if the brunet was hurt anywhere. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that! It's all my fault! Asari wanted me to bring a cup of coffee up to help you while you are working through the night, but I'm so clumsy that I tripped over my own legs and fell!" Tsuna apologised profusely and attempted to pick up all the broken pieces of porcelain. However, Tsuna never had any good experiences with anything with a sharp edge.

"Ouch!" Tsuna exclaimed when he cut his finger.

Giotto immediately knelt down beside Tsuna, a worried look on his face. "It's bleeding badly!"

Tsuna nodded in agreement as he looked at the massive amount of blood oozing out of the small wound. "Yes. But it isn't as serious as it looks. It's just a small cut."

Not buying the explanation, Giotto forced the brunet sit on his bed. "Sit down here and let me see the wound."

Tsuna held out his injured hand tentatively.

"It's not such a bad cut," Giotto analyzed after spending a full minute inspecting the wound.

"See, I told..." the brunet replied weakly but trailed off, his face turned ten different shades of red when he realised that his tip of his right index finger was trapped in a comforting warmth. "W-What are you doing, Giotto?"

Giotto was sucking on his wound gently.

"Gio-nii," the blond corrected. "Call me that when no one else is around."

"G-Gio-nii..." Tsuna muttered softly, utterly embarrased. The massive amount of blood rushing up to his face was making the end of his ears turn pink as well.

_Why the heck was he blushing so much ever since he went back in time to this timeframe? Exactly what was wrong with him?_ Tsuna yelled at himself in his head. This was so unlike him! Or on second thought, maybe not.

Giotto released Tsuna's finger and pulled away slightly. Suddenly, Giotto felt that the short brawl he participated in just now didn't appear so fun and enjoyable anymore. "Sorry. This is the best that I can do for you since we used up the entire first aid kit to patch up everyone else's wounds just now."

Tsuna looked down at his fingertip which was glistening in the dim candlelight. "T-This is more than enough already. I-I'm sorry for all the trouble I always cause you."

And he really meant it. Ever since Tsuna came into this era, he had always felt that he hadn't done anything worth of praise. All he did was just to create more trouble and he always seemed to be protected by the others. Wasn't there something that he could do as well?

Giotto laughed, ruffling Tsuna's hair fondly as he proceeded to change the topic swiftly. "Do you want to stay here and watch me work or would you rather return to your own room and sleep?"

"I..." Tsuna looked up at Giotto gratefully and returned the kind smile. "I'll stay here."

"I see," Giotto laughed as he sat back down on the chair. "Feel free to fall asleep if you are bored."

Tsuna nodded and leaned back against the wall while he watched the blond begin his work. Giotto glanced sideways at Tsuna and a slight smile appeared over his lips.

If this was how he was exactly how he was going to work in the future, then he certainly wouldn't mind pulling all nighters for the rest of his life.

* * *

**Author's notes:** ^ ^ Giotto and Tsuna are steadily getting closer and closer, although they are still barely close enough for my liking yet! I hope that my last sentence wasn't too overboard... And I totally threw the idea of Tsuna spilling coffee all over the paperwork and helping Giotto get away from his duties, because... Imagine - how much G would slaughter Tsuna and Giotto the next day! That would be extremely heartbreaking for me to type! Lol.

On a side note, I'm trying to incorporate other pairings into this fanfiction, so you can tell me what other pairings you want and I'll see if I can add them in. Please note that I'm not letting anyone else go back into time or go into the future, so please do not tell me to add in a pairing with a Primo guardian and a Decimo guardian together. And, the Primo's guardians would be appearing one after another soon, so look forward to that? O_O"

To all the people who took the time and effort to review for the past chapters, thank you very much! And I hope that people would continue to review for this fic!


	5. Friendship

_Chapter 5 tells of a new friendship found_

Tsuna sat up on the bed and rubbed his eyes wearily. When he opened them up, the first thing that came into his view was a small desk and a familiar blond with his head placed on the table, fast asleep.

Tsuna swung his feet over the edge of the bed and winced when he felt the cold air hit him. He hadn't realise how cold the air really was and it made him feel bad for hogging the blanket for the whole night. Making his way over to the blond as quietly as he could, Tsuna draped the piece of cloth around his shoulders.

However he was not cautious enough and brushed his hand over Giotto's shoulder, causing the blond to stir.

"Sorry," Tsuna apologised when he was greeted by a pair of aquamarine eyes which were still hazy from sleep. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

Giotto stretched and looked at the timing shown in his pocket watch. 9.58 am. "No. On the contrary, I'll have to thank you for waking me up. G would be coming over soon to collect my work."

As if on cue, the door to the room slammed open and said person stood in the corridor, his eyes flashing with anger and irritance.

"Damn that stupid Asari, making me finish that stupid glass of milk..." He muttered under his breath while complaining internally about his hatred of milk before clearing his throat and glaring darkly across the room. "Giotto! It's 10 already. Did you finish the entire stack of paperwork?"

With an extremely bored expression on his face, the blond simply gestured to the neat stack of papers piled in a corner of the room.

G raised an eyebrow. "All of them?" He asked, suspicious.

"Yeah. Every single piece of it. Although I almost died halfway through the job."

The crimson haired teenager rolled his eyes while he flipped through the stack to make sure Giotto was not lying. "Start getting ready. You have to go to the neighbouring town to have a meeting with the rich nobles in that area at 12 pm and then later at 3, you will then have to–"

"Can't you just cancel all of them," Giotto sighed and slumped against the table. "I'm so tired that I feel like spending the whole day sleeping, and not walking between towns and attending meetings with those useless and snobbish children from rich families..."

_Uh-oh,_ Tsuna gulped when he spotted the dark aura that G was emitting. It was very clear by now that it took a lot of time and effort for him to make arrangements to that extent and detail, and Giotto just said something that he wasn't supposed to.

"You _will_ attend _all_ of them," G insisted, his tone flat and commanding to show that there was no room for any form of discussion. "It's essential if you want to make the vigilante group official."

"But it doesn't have to be official!"

G sighed at Giotto's protests. "Look. If you want to help more people, it would be easier for us to be labelled as a group to help the civilians instead of being treated like some pitiful rebels. And for us to help more people, we will require financial assistance and support to get all the weapons and people needed for every job. So all these meetings and discussions are completely necessary. Now if you get it, stop lazing around and start preparing for the day already!"

Apparently, Giotto was still _not_ very wide awake since he muttered something that caused G to snap and whack him roughly on his head.

"Always being so commanding and telling me what to do... What are you, my father?"

_o0o0o_

Less than five minutes later, Giotto trudged down the stairs and made his way towards the front door of the inn, all prepared for the long day ahead.

"G is always so mean..." Giotto complained to Tsuna who was walking right next to him. The brunet laughed awkwardly, trying futilely to comfort the other. _At least G allowed him to come along._

"M-Maybe it's just because he really cares about you? I have a friend like that too," Tsuna said, remembering how Gokudera was always very concerned about him.

_The first generation and tenth generation Storm guardians were really alike, _Tsuna mused. _Well, with the exception of G being at least a million times scarier than Gokudera. _He didn't really want to imagine Gokudera beating him like how G whacked Giotto.

"Sometimes, I wonder who is more interested in creating the vigilante group – him or me," Giotto sighed as he continued to rub the swell on his head.

_I think about the same thing too. I wonder who put in more effort to create the Vongola familgia, G-san or you... _Tsuna muttered to himself thoughtfully in his head, but the smile remained on his face.

This kind, friendly and seemingly carefree Giotto was so different from the Giotto he met when he was fighting Byakuran. He was more kind and there was this air around him that made him seem more like a seventeen year old teenager rather than a soon-to-be boss of one of the most notorious mafia familgia.

It was difficult for Tsuna to imagine that someone like Giotto who wanted nothing more than to protect the town he grew up in would later go on to form a mafia group and stand firm as their boss, as the Vongola Primo – especially since the ones who wrecked the tone, besides the government, were the bandits and the mafia.

"Say, Tsuna, do you want to go out later tonight? I don't feel like doing more paperwork tonight and I heard that someone opened a new rest–"

Giotto was cut off abruptly when a middle aged man pushed past him roughly, screaming at the top of his lungs and smashing a pot and pan together to create as much noise as he possibly can before he announced the earth-shattering news. "MURDER! MURDER! SOMEONE WAS MURDERED!"

The change of the look in Giotto's eyes happened so fast that Tsuna almost missed it – one moment it was warm and gentle; the next it turned cold and emotionless.

The blond put a hand on the shouting man and pulled him back, hard. "Tell me exactly where did the crime happen?"

"A-At the boxing ring!"

Giotto let go of the man and held on to Tsuna's hand instead, dragging the brunet off towards the building where the boxing fights would take place every day. "Let's go, Tsuna."

Jogging quickly after Giotto to make sure he didn't fall due to the difference between the lengths of their strides, Tsuna didn't bother to tell the blond that they were supposed to be rushing to meet some rich noble in the neighbouring town because he understood that the peacefulness of this town was what Giotto was really concerned about.

_o0o0o_

"Okay," G growled as he stamped down on what was left of his cigarette, effectively putting out the flame. "I'll ignore your grand idea of skipping the meetings but... Tell me what is this Lost Puppy Number 3 is doing here! Are you organising some secret human adoption program?"

"Lost Puppy... Number three?" Tsuna leaned in and whispered the question to Asari.

Asari chuckled as he whispered his explanation back to Tsuna. "Well, I'm probably the first since I met Giotto right after I set foot in this country and he took me here. I remember that G was pretty angry that time. And you're probably Number 2, which makes _that_ guy Number three."

Giotto grinned at his furious childhood friend. "Hardly. Knuckle merely needs a place to hide from the authorities for a while, since he accidentally killed someone during a boxing match and the victim's families are pressing charges on him."

"Killed? So you mean he is a wanted criminal?" G thundered. "Giotto, are you trying to get me into trouble? Besides, I don't see the need for him to hide from the police anyway. If he killed that guy in a boxing match, the victim's family can't call the police in! Isn't that one of the rules that they sign to before they can even take part in a match?"

Indeed, a flip side of joining in such matches was that even though you would earn a huge amount of money whenever you win a match, the whole contest was illegal – and that meant that no one would be liable for any damages done, even if you lost your life during the match itself.

"His parents bribed the police. So they are searching high and low for Knuckle right now."

G scowled at the dark haired man who had the nerve to be asleep although everyone was discussing about him. "And where on earth is that moron going to be sleeping at? He can't stay downstairs because when the bastards come in to search for him, he will be caught immediately; and all the rooms upstairs are full."

"Um..." Giotto trailed off, deep in thought. "Good point."

G rolled his eyes. "Idiot."

"Ahaha, actually I have a good idea," Asari announced after several seconds of thought. "Why don't you just let Tsuna move into Giotto's room and let Knuckle stay in Tsuna's room? Besides, the room that Tsuna is living in now is at the end of the corridor and we can hide it easily if there's a need to do so."

Everyone stared at Asari like they could not believe that he just proposed such a good plan.

"Great idea!" Giotto approved eagerly.

Tsuna twitched at the thought of sharing a room with his great-great-great-grandfather.

"HIEEEEEEEEEEEE?"

_o0o0o_

"Good night," Giotto kissed Tsuna on the forehead.

Face turning a slight shade of red, Tsuna raised a hand to his forehead to touch the spot that the blond just kissed. Heck, even his mother never did that before.

"Um... G-Gio..." Tsuna trailed off when he remembered what the other said last night. _Gio-nii. Call me that when no one else is __around. _"Where are you going, Gio-nii?"

Giotto placed the extra pillow and blanket that Asari brought up for him, on the floor. "I'll sleep on the floor tonight."

"B-But this is your bed!" Tsuna protested. "You don't have to sleep on the floor!" _I should be the one sleeping on the floor instead!_

Why did he always keep imposing on others?

"It's okay," Giotto smiled. "I'll feel bad if I let a kid like you sleep on the floor."

"Kid?" Tsuna's jaw dropped open and against his better judgment, started to protest. "I'm not a kid! I'm already sixteen this year!"

Giotto blinked twice at the brunet's outburst. "Oh... Really?"

Tsuna nodded vigorously – almost angrily. "Yes!"

"Okay..." Giotto trailed off as he picked up the pillow and blanket from the floor and made his way back towards the bed. "I'm regretting my decision now. Move over."

"What?" Tsuna asked, steadily moving away while Giotto walked towards him, so that his back was pressed into the wall.

"Thank you," Giotto grinned at the confused and shocked expression on the brunet's face before lying down on his half of the bed. "And, good night."

* * *

**Author's notes: **Another chapter done! Courtesy of Knuckle's appearance, I have managed to dump Tsuna into Giotto's room. And of course, this is a T so don't worry, there wouldn't be any smut. At. All. The EXTREME extent that I'll write in this fic is just kissing – promise.

I don't know about all of you but I was laughing when I was writing the scene where G mentions about the Lost Puppies and secret human adoption program. Oh, and the last part as well! G really did whack Giotto - he's a million times scarier than Gokudera anyway; and Giotto is a hundred times less cooperative than Tsuna - mix them together and you get G beating Giotto... I guess?

And did anyone realise that Giotto actually started by calling Tsuna Tsunayoshi-kun but switched over to use Tsuna when Cozart started to call Tsuna as Tsuna. Don't worry/Too bad, even though I'm a huge fan of 0027, I won't be writing any CozartxTsuna. I merely like implying silly little things like that!


	6. The calm before a storm

_Chapter 6 tells of the eerie calmness right before an awful storm arrives_

"It was all just a stupid little hoax!" G groaned while he smashed his fist against the counter in anger. "I swear that if I find the bastards who started the rumors, I'll skin them alive and boil their bones!"

Several minutes after dawn, news about a nearby riot arrived and G was roughly roused from his sleep and forced to go to the 'crime scene' to check up on the situation immediately. It was around then that G found out that it was nothing more than a stupid lie circulated to scare the people.

"There there, calm down, G. It's not like it's that much of a big deal," Asari replied, attempting to calm the furious teenager down while listening to the whole string of rantings even though none of them made sense to him. However, this simple action only served to fuel G's anger.

"Why don't _you_ try to run all around town to find evidence of the riot only to have some _kid_ laughing at you and telling you that everything was actually a _joke_? Do you know how stupid, how silly the whole situation made me look like? Every single person who could hear me was laughing!" G thundered, not bothering to keep his voice down since most of the inhabitants of the inn were already out working already – and it wasn't like G was considerate enough to care either way.

Asari scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "But isn't that your job?"

"Job? If that is my job, then what is that guy's job?" G scoffed, gesturing behind him. At that exact same moment, the door to the lounge in the inn where the trio were in, slammed open and creaked dangerously – announcing the poor condition of the hinges. "All he did for the whole of yesterday was to hole himself up in a small room in fear of the officials coming after his neck!

Knuckle, who was standing in the doorway, pointed a finger directly at G's back. "You are wrong TO THE EXTREME! I wasn't hiding from anyone! I was merely having some EXTREME thoughts yesterday!"

G twitched at the high noise level. "And exactly what conclusion did you come to? That you should move out of this inn already? That you should just drop dead and rot out in the streets instead? That you should commit suicide by deep-frying that annoying and totally useless lump of _fats_ you call a brain?"

"No! I have decided that I will pay for my sins in an EXTREMELY UN-EXTREME method! I will become a PRIEST and serve God for the rest of my life and never use my fists anymore!"

"That's a good goal," Asari gave Knuckle a thumbs up to show his support.

G did a mental facepalm. "Don't encourage him, idiotic flute freak. There's no way that a church would ever accept a wanted criminal as a priest!"

"No! You are wrong TO THE EXTREME!" Knuckle announced as he pulled out the object that he was holding behind himself all this time. "The church has even given me these robes to prove that I'm officially accepted! I can wear them and proudly proclaim that I am one of the few priests in this town!"

Even Asari's jaw dropped at this sentence, although he was the only one who attempted to encourage Knuckle before – he couldn't believe that it was actually this easy for Knuckle to get over this hurdle and become a priest – he had expected many challenges and pleas and explanations.

G groaned.

_o0o0o_

"Giotto?" Tsuna sighed and poked the blond gently in the ribs. "Can you move?"

Tsuna had been trying to wake Giotto up for almost an hour now, but all that Giotto did, was snuggle up closer to him and needless to say, Tsuna was beginning to feel increasingly uncomfortable – as in, he needed to get to a more open space right now! He hated to be trapped against the wall and with no way to escape. Besides, if Giotto wouldn't move soon, Tsuna feared that he might...

"Jeez, stop sleeping already and get off me!" Tsuna screamed, finally snapping and against his better judgment, decided to kick Giotto off the bed with one single kick.

Yes, just like this...

Wait... WHAT? Tsuna screamed at himself in his mind, slapping both of his palms to his cheek in shock. He had no idea what he should do next. Help Giotto up? Apologise? Or maybe...?

"Ow, what the hell was that for?" Giotto complained as he pushed himself up from the ground and rubbed the swell on the back of his head. "Heck, why is the floor so freaking cold..."

"I-I'm sorry for-" Tsuna mumbled, but trailed off and watched as Giotto's eyes closed and the blond fell back onto the ground and went back into sleep.

Tsuna's eyes twitched in annoyance and shock. Even after knowing Reborn and especially Colonello – who practically falls asleep most of the time, regardless of what situation and condition he himself was in – how could it be possible for one guy to be able to actually be able to sleep this much?

_o0o0o_

Reborn took off his fedora hat, combing his hair back before jumping up onto the table so that he was currently appearing to be taller than Giannini. "I heard that you have finally figured out the time frame that Tsuna was sent to. Which is it and I want you to bring that idiot back immediately."

"T...That's why I have been telling you that it is impossible..." Giannini replied quickly without thinking, making the mistake of not obeying Reborn – which earned him a dark glare. "The only piece of information that I acquired from the ten year bazooka is that he was sent very far into the past... about 400 years ago..."

"400 years ago? Isn't that the Primo's era? Did dame-Tsuna meet with Giotto?" Reborn interrupted. "If that's really the case, then it isn't good. That idiot might have said anything unnecessary to Giotto to create a time paradox."

Nervous from the dark and threatening aura that Reborn was emanating, Giannini taking huge and frequent gulps of air. "P-Personally, I don't think that the Boss would do something that silly. And it's not the first time for Boss to travel between different time frames, he should know better than to tell Primo of such things."

"That idiot always does unexpected things so we can never be sure what that idiot will do next. So the best thing that you can accomplish now is to secure a way for Tsuna to return to this time frame as quickly and safely as possible!"

"That's why I-I've been saying that I need more time to bring Boss back since the ten year bazooka is impossible to be used to bring Boss back. I need to create a time machine from scratch and this will require time – much more time than what is needed to research on the ten year bazooka that the Bovino familgia invented!"

Reborn put his fedora hat back on and pulled it lower so that it shielded his eyes. "A week."

Giannini's eyes looked like they were on the verge of popping out. "What? That's impossible! I-If I don't do the time machine properly, Boss might be trapped between the time frames when we are doing the procedures to bring him back to this era. Then... Then..."

Reborn sighed mentally. Why didn't Giannini understand what he meant? If they try to put this off for too long, Tsuna would get into trouble, the typical kinds that only he would be able to get into – like making bonds with the people in the time frame that he wasn't supposed to be in and because this was the type of person Tsuna was. "Don't worry. If you fail to meet the deadline, all I will do is to blast your head open."

_o0o0o_

Tsuna sat at the dining table, in the seat across Giotto. It has only been approximately three days since Tsuna arrived here, but everyone already trusted him as if they knew him for a rather long time – and this was probably due to Giotto friendly personality. Also, Tsuna noticed many patterns and habits that the people have. Well, that only applied to the people who were closer to him.

For example, G preferred to eat his meals alone since he usually choose a table at the far corner of the inn. He wouldn't speak to anyone and would even ignore anyone who tries to speak to him. For G, eating seemed to be one of his relaxation time whereby he could stay in his own world.

On the other hand, Asari chose to observe others. He would always stand behind the counter, grinning happily. Tsuna could understand this. Since Asari was the cook, it made sense for him to be overjoyed when he see others enjoying the food that he put his heart into cooking.

Giotto was more sociable when he was eating. He appeared to Tsuna like the blond made it a point for himself to speak more and laugh more when he was eating. Especially during dinner, when all the inhabitants of the inn were back, Giotto was more lively as usual and would never fail to speak to every single person. Plus, if there was something that Tsuna knew as well, it was that Giotto really treasured his friends and would always try to protect all of them, like what he was doing now. Giotto is really...

"-na... Hey, Tsuna... Are you listening to me?"

"HIEEEE?" Tsuna exclaimed when he returned back to reality. "Y-Yes?"

Giotto smirked. "I'm wondering... What were you thinking about? You were staring at me so intently that I thought there was something on my face."

Blushing profusely, Tsuna immediately shot up from his sitting position. "EHHH? S-Staring? I wasn't doing anything of the sort!"

The smirk on Giotto's face softened into a smile – a sly and knowing one. "Oh really?"

"O-Of course!" Tsuna protested, quickly denying any other possible ideas and reasons that Giotto might have formulated in his head. There was no way that he would ever admit anything anyway!

Giotto lifted his right hand up towards Tsuna and paused momentarily, watching as confusion and hesitance flickered across Tsuna's eyes before flicking the brunet on the forehead. "Don't make such a face, idiot."

"Ow!" Tsuna rubbed at the reddening spot on his forehead. "What was that for?"

"That was for kicking me off the bed this morning," Giotto replied, but even so he didn't withdraw his hand and instead, he opened his fist up and allowed a necklace to dangle from his finger. "And this is a present as an apology for hitting you."

Tsuna took the present over and looked at the heart shaped pendant twice before he managed to open his mouth to ask an extremely dumb question. "Is this love?"

The entire inn fell silent and the sound of cutlery clattering to the ground happened all at once.

"L-Love? Oh my god!"

"Haha! Giotto, giving him a gift was a bad move! Now the kid thinks that you like him!"

Hearing that, Tsuna quickly tried to redeem himself. "EHH? NO! I didn't mean it that way!"

"So you mean that it's the other way round? You like Giotto?"

"Oh yes! I smell a secret love blooming! Sniff sniff!"

"Hey... Hey!" Giotto laughed, giving the person beside him a friendly punch in the arm. "What's with all the assumptions? Since when did my gift become a love confession item?"

The people crowding around Giotto nodded to each other and replied together in a loud voice. "Since we said so!"

Tsuna watched as Giotto laughed and joked around with the others – having fun. It was then that he realised how fun it was for him to be here? In this time frame, no one ever looked down at him and he was accepted almost instantly. They were now... all his friends... right?

"Phew. It was hell trying to get out of that," Giotto gestured to the mop behind him where everyone was still trying to squeeze 'Giotto' without knowing that the man had already escaped. "So? Do you like the necklace?"

Tsuna blinked. "Y-Yeah. It's pretty."

"Great. I was afraid that you wouldn't like things like... Crap!" Giotto sighed when the entire room suddenly fell silent and quickly scooped Tsuna up and started sprinting up the stairs. "They found out!"

Footsteps echoed behind them while the people behind them shouted weird war cries.

"E-EHHH? P-Put me down!" Tsuna protested and tried to struggle to get out of Giotto's arms.

"S-Stop struggling! I'm going to fall!" Giotto replied, leaning precariously to his left when he made a sharp turn.

_o0o0o_

"Safe..." Giotto grinned after he locked the door behind them and placed Tsuna down on the ground. "And it sounds like they have given up already... So, it means that I've escaped once again, yes!"

Tsuna laughed a little at the look on Giotto's face which showed that he was clearly having fun. "You look like you are very happy."

"That's because I'm really having fun! The people here are really nice!"

"I know," the brunet answered and fingered the pendant before smiling up at Giotto. "Thanks for the gift."

Giotto flopped down on the bed and stretched. "No problem. I just saw this at a store when we went shopping with Cozart the last time. And it's my only first present to you anyway."

Still smiling a little, Tsuna crawled up onto the bed and got into a comfortable position. "Only the first present? Does this mean that I can kick you off the bed tomorrow too?"

* * *

**Author's notes: **Sorry for the late update. To clarify about the ending... well, Tsuna was saying that if he kick Giotto off the bed, Giotto would 'hit' him and give him a present too. And Giotto referred to the gift as the first one only, Tsuna was using that as a loophole.

And, before more people ask me about this – 'Catapulted Into Love' IS shounen-ai or BL or whatever else you want to call it. And if you are thinking why didn't I make it clear from the start, please refer back to Chapter 1. Before I even started the story, I made it clear that this was going to be a G27 fic – Parings: Giotto x Tsuna (G27) – so please don't ask me about this again.


	7. A secret revealed

_Chapter 7 tells of a secret being made known_

"You sure woke up early this morning," Asari waved to Giotto who appeared in the kitchen as early as six in the morning.

"Early? That's considered late already!" G scoffed and stood up from his seat, straightening his shirt and smoothing out all the creases. "We were supposed to _leave_ the inn at six."

Giotto groaned inwardly. "Relax, G. We will make it on time. It only takes fifteen minutes to get there."

"If we sprint," G added on. "I can't believe that you are telling the kid behind you to run along with us too."

Tsuna fidgeted uncomfortably. He wasn't used to the attire he was in right now, and he would rather stay in the inn than tag along to visit a grave of a person that he had never met before. However, the problem was that Tsuna didn't know how much longer he would be able to stay in this time frame and he would, of course, prefer to spend every minute exploring a little more of the town and know more about the past of Vongola – the renowned mafia familgia that he would inherit in the future.

"There there, G you should learn how to relax," Asari grinned and handed the red headed teenager a basket. "Make sure to have fun later!"

G facepalmed – He didn't get how it was possible for people to have fun when visiting a grave. However, that doubt was quickly forgotten when he opened the basket Asari gave him and saw a large amount of food in it. "You idiotic flute freak! What's with the amount of food? How many times must I tell you that we are _not_ going for a freaking _picnic_?"

"It's one hundred percent okay that we are taking all these along! Just leave it to me to finish all of it!" Giotto shot Asari a thumbs up and quickly grabbed the entire basket of food before G could do any form of damage to the delicious dishes inside.

"Um... Isn't Asari-san coming along?" Tsuna asked tentatively and turned a slight shade of blue when G turned to him with an expression on his face that read 'I'm very pissed off right now so keep silent or I shall cut off your tongue and cook it for breakfast'.

"Nope! He said that it was impossible for anyone else to be able to run the inn efficiently besides himself since everyone has to leave for work and Asari refuses to close the store for the day because he says that it's betraying the customers who really want to eat the inn's food for the day."

"Right..." Tsuna trailed off, wondering why on earth did Asari suddenly want to use the inn to start a small shop to sell food. "But isn't Knuckle there as well? He can help, can't he?"

Giotto laughed awkwardly. "Maybe, but he broke three plates in just two minutes when he was trying to help yesterday."

Tsuna tried hard to keep back his urge to burst into laughter. Knuckle was way worse then him – even though he could guess that it was generally due to Knuckle's monstrous strength that the plates actually broke – at least Tsuna didn't have a record of being able to break so many things in such a short span of time.

"Giotto, don't you think that we should walk a little bit faster..." Tsuna gulped when he realised a dark glare being directed at them and quickly upped his speed by a notch.

_o0o0o_

Tsuna looked upon the small stone set in the ground with several words carved into it – a grave.

"It's my dad's," Giotto knelt in front of the stone and closed his eyes. The blond's lips moved continuously like he was saying a long list of things to his dead father and Tsuna would occasionally hear Giotto mentioning his name as well.

G guided Tsuna over to the shade under a tree and made him sit on the mat. "Giotto's father loved the town very much and died while trying to protect it."

"I-Is that why Giotto wants to... protect this town too?" Tsuna questioned even though he knew that it was wrong for him to attempt to dig up information in Giotto's absence.

"Not really, I just happen to like the town as much as my father did," Giotto chuckled and got up from the ground. "Now then, shall we go home?"

G rolled his eyes. "That was fast. You took several hours last year."

"That was different! I had more things to say the last year, but I only have two main things to say this year – meeting Tsuna and the setting up of Vongola!"

Tsuna blinked and raised a hand up into the air to signal that he was going to speak soon. "Um... You forgot about Knuckle."

Giotto froze and the atmosphere seemed to darken a little before Giotto started to officially freak out. "Yeah you are right! Crap! Hey, dad? Are you here? Can you still hear me? Don't go away yet! I forgot to tell you something else just now-!"

_o0o0o_

On the way back, Giotto seemed to be happy for some unknown reason and kept grinning. On the other hand, G seemed to have calmed down from his outburst that morning and finally stopped glaring at everything in his path.

And Tsuna learnt something very interesting about G today. If he was ever furious with you, all you have to do is just to pat him on the head, call him a good boy and tell him to forgive you. According to Giotto, this method worked perfectly every single time and the blond had even taken the effort to demonstrate to him several minutes ago.

"What do you want to eat for dinner, Tsuna?"

The brunet managed to pause in time so he was able to stop himself from knocking into Giotto who was suddenly standing in front of him. _Hamburgers!_ "A-Anything is fine!"

"You aren't helping me to come to a decision at all," Giotto frowned slightly and turned to the other person. "G? What about you?"

"Bread."

Giotto's face fell slightly. "Really? But isn't bread a little too...? And it is barely filling and I'll-"

As expected, G's eyebrows twitched in anger and his fist connected with the back of Giotto's head in the next second. "Don't ask someone something if you don't intend to listen to them!"

"But, G, bread is indeed a little-" Giotto began abruptly but a loud bang from a gun which was followed closely by screaming and the sound of people running and hiding was enough to interrupt whatever he was about to say. "Stand back. There are enemies around."

Giotto's voice became a tad bit lower and more authoritative and Tsuna found himself obediently stepping away from the blond. The brunet knew that he would get in the way if he stood around, and it wasn't like he could get into his Hyper Dying Will Mode to help in the fight – if he did so, he would have to reveal the fact that he came from the future and Tsuna preferred not to let that happen.

"A-Aren't you going to help?" Tsuna asked G who had taken refuge from the mass of bullets raining down from the sky.

G rolled his eyes. "No way. The gun I'm carrying right now can't hit that far and Giotto is better equipped to deal with such situations."

_You mean by flying through the sky and becoming an easy target for the enemies?_

"But he'll get injured!" Tsuna hissed in reply as he watched the blond wincing when a bullet made contact with the side of his thigh, tearing the skin.

"I'll treat his wounds later. For now, we'll have to trust Giotto's strength," G muttered and pulled out his gun, easily taking down several of the enemies within range.

Tsuna looked up at the blond soaring though the sky, darting around quickly to dodge a few vital attacks. None of his movements were superfluous and it looked as if Giotto was taunting the enemy rather than actually putting in effort to fight properly.

_Was he going to be alright?_

But it seemed that Tsuna didn't had to worry since all of the hidden enemies were taken out minutes later. G cleared the enemies on the ground and within range while Giotto was responsible for the others who were hiding up on higher floors or were further away. Words were not needed to convey their battle formation and that was what took the enemies by surprise.

"So? Who sent you? Why are you after Giotto's life?" G demanded. He grabbed the poor injured man by his throat and started to shake him vigorously. "Spit it out!"

The poor man started choking and struggled in G's iron grip. "P-Put me d-down... I'll s-speak..."

"Let him go, G. He's turning blue already! If you keep this up, he'd die!" Giotto freaked out and pried at G's fingers.

Noting the fact that his victim was about to die from lack of air, G quickly let him go and the injured person fell heavily onto the ground – if their only source of information was gone, it would be troublesome to attempt to find others instead. "Now, speak."

"I... I'm from the Jozue familgia. We... are here to take out the Vongola familgia..."

Giotto blinked twice. "Familgia? You mean, like a mafia familgia? B-But we are only a vigilante group! And I created Vongola to defeat the mafia and bandits! There's no way that we would join the mafia!"

Tsuna stayed silent while he watched Giotto and G bickering with the teenager. He knew that the vigilante group created to protect the people had indeed became part of the mafia in the end and this was probably the turning point.

"Not part of the mafia?" The boy croaked hoarsely and quickly attempted to clear his throat. "Don't be ridiculous! It is impossible for someone to not be a part of the mafia and yet be able to stand up against them. You guys have been seen as a threat to us and even the government has labeled all of you as a new mafia familgia – the Vongola familgia."

"Being an enemy of the mafia world does not make me into a mafia member!" Giotto tried to explain his situation to the best of his ability.

"That doesn't concern me at-" The boy tried to stand up but fell limply to the ground less than a second later, with blood oozing out from the gunshot wound on his forehead.

As if on cue, Giotto lit his dying will flame again. "So there were still enemies? Where are they?"

Constantly reminding himself to be on guard, Tsuna spun around quickly and started to search for the enemy. Of course, Reborn had given him training on using an efficient and effective way to spot the enemy – and those training tips would certainly come in handy here.

Tsuna spotted a dark shadow on the third level of the building right in front of them. There was someone hiding there and there was no doubt that he was pointing a gun straight at Giotto.

The worse thing was that the blond was looking in the opposite direction and wasn't aware of the man hiding in the building. There was no way that Giotto would be able to anticipate and dodge the incoming bullet!

Tsuna knew that he had to do something quickly... but _what_ could he do?

Against his better judgment, Tsuna dived in front of Giotto's back and instantly created a large wall of flame that glowed a bright shade of orange. The flames absorbed the impact from the contact and fired the bullet back at the direction that it came from, eliciting a loud scream from the person who was hit.

Giotto turned at the sound of the scream and saw the last of Tsuna's flames before they disappeared. "Tsuna... That was... Were those dying will flames?"

_Crap! Why did I do that for? I should have just shouted for Giotto to be careful! N-Now he's going to find out that I'm... I came from the future!_

"HIEEEE? Wh-What are dying will flames? Nothing happened just now, nothing at all! Hahaha!" Tsuna decided to follow Plan A, which was to play dumb and act as if nothing happened. However, he failed to consider the fact that apart from Giotto, there was a high possibility that G saw his flames.

"Who exactly are you? Don't tell me that you are a member of the Jozue familgia?" G demanded in a threatening tone while pointing his gun straight at Tsuna's head. If G decides to squeeze the trigger, Tsuna knew that he would be gone in a flash – he wouldn't have enough time to dodge, not with that close proximity.

Unlike the last time, Cozart was not around to help stop G and it didn't seem like Giotto would lend him a hand either. Well, at least he should be glad that Giotto wasn't trying to kill him as well, seeing as he had been the one trying to keep secrets from them.

_Oh god, why can't the ten year bazooka just recover this very instant and send him back home? He didn't want to be shot repeatedly by a gun and have his life punched out of him!_

"My hyper intuition tells me that you don't have any ill intentions and you even saved me from that bullet earlier. But, I'm interested to know where you are from, Tsunayoshi."

The brunet took a deep breath and prepared himself mentally for what he had to say next. Despite knowing that this day would definitely arrive sooner or later, somehow, he still felt uneasy about saying the truth out. Even so, the brunet understood that he didn't have a choice in this life and death situation. He totally sucked at lying and knew that if he told one, it would be exposed on the spot – and so, telling the truth seemed to be a better course of action for Tsuna. Yes, he had to say it.

"I'm from the future."

_o0o0o_

Giotto bit at the piece of bread in his hands. He and Tsuna were currently in a small shop and G had went off first, leaving the two of them alone together.

"Okay... So what you are saying is that you are the Vongola Decimo and you live in a small town in Japan called Namimori. Several days ago, during breakfast you made a five year old kid upset and he pulled a bazooka out of his afro, hit the weapon against the wall and somehow, it slipped out of his hands and hit you. Because of this, you were sent 400 years into the past."

"Y-Yes, that's right," Tsuna nodded and felt his face burning up when Giotto burst into laughter. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing much, I was just thinking if this was the reason why everything clicks together so perfectly."

Tsuna raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Clicks together? Everything?"

Giotto grinned. "Yeah. Like how you fell out of the sky and called me Vongola Primo when we met for the very first time."

"O-Oh," Tsuna replied. At first he was fearful that the blond might not accept his explanation but it seemed that he did right now. However, that does not mean that Giotto believed it, and no matter what, Tsuna was at fault for not thinking before acting earlier and now that he revealed his secret, he had to make sure that the situation didn't get out of hand - God knows who might attempt to change the future and make everything go out of hand? "B-But can you promise me to keep this to yourself? I-If others know of this, they might create a time paradox, and then..."

"It's okay. I promise you that I'll definitely not say anything to the others. But how much time do you have left in this time frame?"

Tsuna's face fell slightly. "I don't know... But I'm sure that I'll probably have to leave sometime soon." That was true since Tsuna knew for sure that the others must be devising some way for him to return to the future right now, and it wasn't like he actually wanted to stay here, right?

It wasn't possible for him to keep staying in this time frame either. His mother would be worried and he had friends back at Namimori too.

"I see. Then I guess my new job is to make sure that every second of your time here is so fun that you won't forget about it when you return back to the future!"

Giotto flashed a bright grin at Tsuna and the brunet immediately felt his face turning a slight shade of pink.

Confused and a little embarrassed, Tsuna quickly lowered and concentrated his gaze on the piece of bread in his hands. Recently, it seemed to him that he always faced a little trouble remembering to breathe and would never fail to blush when Giotto looked at him, especially when he had that bright yet gentle smile on.

And his heart felt like it was actually beating a hundred times faster than when he saw his first ever crush – Sasagawa Kyoko – in school.

Having such fuzzy emotions kind of reminded him of a school girl falling in love with the boy seated right next to her in class. However, there was no possible way for him to be able to fall in love with Giotto! God, that guy was his great-great-great grandfather and even if he was not, Giotto would be a pile of bones by the time Tsuna was born - if he wasn't bombed to smithereens beforehand, or decayed into dust already.

And he wasn't some naïve school girl who thinks of nothing but love either.

"What are you thinking about, Tsuna? Or is that piece of garlic bread really that delicious?"

The brunet gasped when he was pulled back into reality by Giotto's voice. "HIEEE? N-No! That's not it!"

"Then what is the problem?" Giotto questioned. "And I don't think that you should speak that loudly when you are saying that the food cooked by others are not up to your expectations."

Tsuna spun around to see that all the staff in the shop – including the older woman in charge of sweeping the floor – seemed to be glaring angrily at him. "I-I didn't mean that it tasted nasty! It's the most delicious bread that I've ever eaten! I swear!"

"Haha, why are you so-"

"S-Say Giotto, why don't we go home already? I'm sure the others will be worried if we stay out any later, right?" Tsuna quickly interrupted when he felt more dark glares being directed at himself. _Jeez, why did he always say something wrong? Why was he the only one always causing misunderstandings?_

"If you say so," Giotto replied placed a bill on the table before proceeding to drag Tsuna, who was currently frozen with shock, out of the store and down the path towards the inn.

Needless to mention, Tsuna flushed at the contact and immediately struggled futilely to get free. "W-Wait, Giotto!"

Stopping for a short moment, Giotto turned around and stuck his tongue out at the brunet before continuing to pull Tsuna along while he raced down the winding streets at breakneck speed.

"Sorry but I'm not going to let go of you, Tsuna."

* * *

**Author's notes: **And that's another chapter done! Tsuna is finally starting to understand his feelings for Giotto, but Giotto... hmm... let's see... still treats Tsuna like a good friend? Either that or he doesn't know of his own feelings yet. (I'm rooting for the latter. And Giotto, start liking Tsuna already!) And so, I'm going to start introducing the other guardians into the story so it wouldn't seem like I'm only focusing on G and Asari that much then (:


	8. The mafia and an invitation

_Chapter 8 tells of joining the mafia and an invitation_

"For the last time, I'm telling you that it is absolutely necessary for me to meet this person named Giotto!"

G twitched and glared coldly at the teenager with light green hair who was cowering in fear. "And for the last time, _I'm _telling _you_ that you have to tell me why you want to see him _first_!"

"Now now," Asari chuckled as he stepped between the two. "G, don't treat the guest so badly."

G rolled his eyes. "Guest? He's just a stupid troublemaker who demands unreasonable things without stating his reasons!"

"T-That's why I-I have been saying from just now that my n-name is Lampo and I'm here on my f-father's orders to talk about the c-contract that G-Giotto didn't come over to our house to sign y-yesterday...!" Lampo looked as if he was on the verge of tears, busy thinking about the reason why his father would even consider sending him to such a place filled with creepy people who looked so scary and shouted at him all the time.

He would rather stay at home and study four hours straight instead of setting even half a foot into this building!

Asari put a comforting hand on Lampo's shoulder, trying to calm the whimpering boy down. "See G, he has already given you all the essential information. Why can't you just let him see Giotto?"

"That's because he just said the essential crap!" G retorted angrily. "All that he would speak before this was that he had to meet Giotto!"

"I-I-I-I-I'M SORRY!" Lampo wailed loudly as he jumped and immediately hid behind Asari's back. "PLEASE FORGIVE ME! DON'T HIT ME!"

Asari immediately tried to assure the frightened boy. "There there, G might look intimidating but... he isn't that scary at all. He's actually quite a nice guy and don't worry, he wouldn't bully you."

"R-Really?" Lampo peeked out from behind Asari to see G glaring darkly at himself.

At that exact same moment, the door to the lounge in the inn where the trio were in, slammed open and creaked dangerously – announcing the poor condition of the hinges.

Knuckle, who was standing in the doorway, stared straight into Lampo's face before walking forward and pointing an index finger straight at his nose, declaring in a loud voice, "You are a coward TO THE EXTREME!"

"I don't want to hear that coming from a guy who holed himself up in a small room for the whole of yesterday in fear of the officials coming after his neck!" G snapped. He was very irritated by the continued wailing of Lampo and Knuckle's endless shouting – in order words, noise pollution.

"You are EXTREMELY wrong! I was working yesterday!"

"As a priest?" G scoffed, and Knuckle immediately punched the air in agreement.

Giotto who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, having just came down, sighed in disappointment before smiling in agreement. "That's sad to hear. I thought that you would join me in the building up of Vongola too. I heard that you are a strong fighter who never lost in any boxing match before. But, if this is your choice, I'll accept and support it, Fist."

"Thank you TO THE EXTREME!" Knuckle roared in happiness. There weren't many people who would support someone who tried to make a living from fighting at illegal boxing competitions but there were fewer people who even spoke to people who are trying to become priests and Knuckle was glad that Giotto didn't mind being friends with someone like him. "But, who's Fist?"

G did a mental facepalm at that.

Seriously, he expected Giotto to think clearly before speaking, especially since the blond himself knew that he faced a lot of trouble trying to remembering names – in fact, G was certain that the only name Giotto manage to remember within minutes was the brunet's. Heck, that was probably the reason why Giotto decided to name him 'G' instead of some long and fancy tongue-twister type of name that all those nobles seemed to have.

"It's..." Giotto trailed off and glanced over at G, whose dark look made Giotto sure that 'Fist' was certainly not Knuckle's name. "...Another friend of mine. He likes boxing too and used to take part in matches in the past."

Knuckle's eyes twinkled at the mention of someone who shared the same interest as him. "Where's Fist now? Can I meet him? I want to meet him TO THE EXTREME!"

Giotto backed away. It was blatantly obvious that he hadn't expected that reaction at all. "No. He's out of the country at the moment and won't be coming back anytime soon."

Tsuna's eyebrows twitched while he watched what he thought was fire burning in Knuckle's eyes die out. He wondered if that meant that Knuckle really believed what Giotto said. How was it possible for an almost twenty year old man to believe such things? It was so obvious that that was merely a silly little lie! Was Knuckle really that gullible?

"That's EXTREMELY sad to hear," Knuckle showed a look of genuine sadness and Giotto felt a little uncomfortable for lying to him even if it was only to cover his own mistake...

"Then I'll be sure to convey your message to him when he returns the next time?"

Meanwhile, Lampo stood at the sidelines, looking at how everyone was interacting happily and feeling very left out.

Wait – why was he feeling left out? Heck, he wasn't even part of the group of lunatics to begin with! He came here on his father's orders, on business! This people were merely clients – nothing more – and yet, they certainly don't seem like bad people they first seemed to be and maybe, just maybe, the negotiation with them will go smoothly?

"Lam... Who are you?" Tsuna scratched the back of his head awkwardly while he asked the green haired boy. The brunet had been a little too relaxed since he finally told Giotto about his real identity yesterday but he definitely had to pay a little more attention to what he was saying – if Giotto kept his promise, no one else would know that he was from the future and it was definitely not a good idea to blow his own cover.

Lampo cleared his throat when he realised that the person who just spoke to him looked about the same age as him and rather weak too, if he might add, and began speaking in a haughty tone. "My name is The Great and Mighty Lampo and you can call me Your Highness!"

Giotto propped his face up with a hand and grinned widely, disregarding the fact that Lampo wasn't speaking to him at all. "How about a king?"

"Of course that's good too. Anything of Royal Status suits me!"

"Even a concubine?" Giotto offered.

"But of cour- Wait, WHAT? HELL NO!" Lampo shrieked in shock and Giotto burst into laughter, clutching at his stomach in pain.

After a two minutes worth of laughing fit, the blond used the back of his hand to wipe away the tears that accumulated at the corner of his eyes and decided to continue speaking.

"So, let's see. I'm the King and you are the Prince, G fits the role of the overly-cautious head of the imperial army and a very good friend, Asari is the forgiving older brother. And Tsuna is... Which important role did I miss out?"

Lampo rolled his eyes. "Isn't that obvious? You skipped the Queen."

_'Yeah,' _Tsuna agreed with Lampo in his mind. He too, realised that Giotto didn't mention anything about a Queen at all. Even though it was impossible for normal people to forget about that important position. Usually.

"Right," Giotto announced happily, glad that he finally solved the mystery. "So Tsuna will be my Queen!"

"Yes, I'm your Queen..." Tsuna muttered softly before freezing in shock when Giotto's words finally sunk into his head. "HIEEEEEE? WHY?"

Tsuna gaped at Giotto in shock. He really didn't get what the blond was thinking sometimes! Tsuna was sure that he didn't look like a woman in any shape, size or form – okay, maybe just a tiny little bit – so why did he have to be the Queen? No one else had a female role too!

D-Did Giotto just like to tease him so much?

"That's such a simple question," Giotto chuckled while patting Tsuna gently on the head. "It's just because you are so cute that I can't help but- OW! What was that for, G?"

Said man turned slowly towards him with a menacing aura. "Don't you think you should stop acting like a pedophile and hitting on young boys? You are creeping all of us out, so can you please hurry up and start work already?"

Giotto made a face. "Okay... So tell me what brought you here today, Lampo."

Lampo snapped back into reality and went into his 'working' mode. "Oh, I'm here on my Dad's request. We heard that your familgia was an arising power in the mafia world and even took out a major division of the Jozue familgia yesterday, so my father would like all of you to work for us. In exchange, we will fund all your projects."

The slight smile on Giotto's face vanished and he was glad that the other people living in the inn were out working right now. If they were present, Giotto wouldn't know how to answer. If he accepted the job, there was no doubt that they would be officially recognised as part of the mafia – not that they weren't seen as such right now – and that seemed like he was betraying everyone's trust in him.

"Familgia?" G growled angrily and grabbed the piece of unsigned contract that Lampo placed on the table in front of Giotto. "There's no way that we'll ever accept this deal. We don't care about your dad and we certainly aren't part of the mafia!"

Giotto put a hand on top of G's, preventing the latter from ripping the piece of paper into pieces. "I won't sign the contract. I prefer not to be bound by time and rules since our familgia has an exact and united aim in mind. However, it is a fact that we need the money so we'll be taking up on your offer for the time being."

Lampo heaved a sigh of relief and opened the suitcase he brought along to reveal tons of bills. "It's great to hear your agreement. This is the payment for the first month and I'll make sure to inform you when the first job comes in."

_o0o0o_

"Wait, Giotto," G insisted. "Was it just a slip of tongue when you said 'familgia' earlier? You can't really mean that Vongola is going to join the Mafia, right?"

"What are you saying, G? We are already part of it. Didn't you hear what the person from Jozue said yesterday?"

_'Uh oh,' _Tsuna gulped nervously. It was obvious from G's expression that the red haired man didn't like the idea of entering the mafia world at all. An argument was about to break out and Tsuna hoped that it wouldn't turn into a fight.

Both guys were skilled in combat and if they were to use their weapons... the entire building would be reduced to dust. Literally.

"And you believed him?"

Giotto shrugged. "Why not? He had no reason to lie. Besides, being part of the mafia isn't all that bad either. We can get our hands on more weapons and protect the town better."

"Better? So now you are trying to justify your reasons for becoming part of the mafia by using the town as an excuse? Did you even consider about the others' feelings when they hear that you would be turning this into a mafia familgia? Everyone here hates the mafia and... I can't be bothered with you anymore!" G retorted and stormed out of the inn without hesitation.

Asari blinked twice after G made his flashy exit. "W-What's wrong with G today?"

Tsuna looked from Giotto to Asari then back to Giotto again. The blond was already making his way up the stairs and was certainly not intending to go after G.

But G was his friend right? Was it really okay to leave him alone?

Resisting the urge to chase after Giotto, Tsuna ran out of the inn to look for G instead. He knew that it was useless to attempt to persuade Giotto since he was the one who told the blond of the fate of Vongola and made him promise that he would never do anything to change the future no matter how large the temptation might be.

Hence, there was only one single option left – to make G understand Giotto's viewpoint and accept the fact that becoming part of the mafia was the only way left.

_o0o0o_

"Why the hell are you here? Go away!"

Tsuna grimaced. There was no doubt that G was indeed far more scary that Gokudera, but what he was going to do had to be done and he certainly wasn't going to give up right now. "I'm here to speak to you."

"If it's about the mafia then I don't want to listen."

"It is, but I still want you to listen. Giotto isn't an unreasonable person and I want to tell you his reasons for joining the mafia."

G sighed in defeat. "Of course I know that he had reasons, but suddenly saying that he wanted to join in the mafia without saying anything beforehand... It felt like he forgot how the town suffered under their hands." It was as if Giotto forgot the reason why his own father died and...

Tsuna fell silent, not knowing how to reply. He just came to this era recently so he had no idea what the town been through under the hands of the mafia, but it certainly wasn't a nice incident and Tsuna had no idea how to comfort G – or anyone.

"You know, my parents died when I was six... I was over at Giotto's house so I didn't see anything but it didn't really take a lot of guessing to find out what happened when I opened the door and looked into a room splattered all over with blood. Those bastards just burst into our home all of a sudden, stole everything and killed everyone. They didn't even let my three year old sister go... I hate the mafia and I don't want to see Giotto killing any innocent victims."

"He won't," Tsuna replied in a firm tone. He was sure of this fact. "Even if you guys get into the mafia it doesn't mean that Giotto's aims are going to change. He still loves this town as much as you do and I'm sure that he is still striving to protect it. And... Giotto probably thinks that if there is a large familgia in the area, the others would be too frightened to approach it. Sometimes it's necessary to do what you don't want to for the sake of protecting what you truly love."

G pulled out a cigarette and lit it before smiling slightly as he looked up at the brunet. "You do say some encouraging things sometimes."

Tsuna blinked twice before quickly beginning to freak out. He never once thought that G would thank him – well, that was the closest thing to a thanks that Tsuna knew he would ever get.

"You should go and encourage Giotto too since he is probably upset right now."

"W-What about you?"

"I won't apologise this very instant. If I go and look for him now, we'll probably start arguing again. I'll make up with him tomorrow."

_o0o0o_

'Sawada Tsunayoshi's counselling session part two,' the brunet thought bitterly as he knocked repeatedly on the door of the bedroom which he shared with Giotto, Vongola Primo.

Moments ago, he had just been with G but now he had another role to play because he had to create a chance for Giotto and G to make up again.

"Can you open the door?" Tsuna asked, knocking louder this time in case Giotto didn't hear it the first time round.

"It isn't locked."

Tsuna took two seconds to scold himself for his total lack of intelligence before opening the door. Inside the room was pile after pile of extremely thick books and it took a moment before Tsuna finally spotted Giotto cuddled in one corner of the room, reading.

"What are you doing? Come in."

Tsuna tried his best to squeeze in without knocking over anything. _'Come in? How?'_

Giotto flipped another page as he continued to sulk in one corner of the room. This was probably one of his worst arguments with G and he was not exactly coping well – choosing to drown his sorrows in knowledge.

"Um, G finally understands the situation and isn't angry already but he said that he'll make up with you tomorrow."

"Why not today?" Giotto raised an eyebrow in confusion and Tsuna gulped nervously.

"I... don't know?"

Sighing in defeat, Giotto tossed the book in his hands over to its companions on the floor. "Jeez, that guy has always been stubborn like that."

Tsuna laughed awkwardly while trying to mask his relief that Giotto wasn't really mad at G. "W-Well, I guess this is all that I came up to say so I'll go down for dinner now. You should come down soon too, okay?"

"Wait Tsuna," Giotto grabbed Tsuna's hand and the brunet froze immediately.

"Y-Yes?" Tsuna tried to say but the sound came out sounding more like a whisper and Tsuna prayed Giotto couldn't feel his pulse since his heart was beating rather erratically right now. The spot on his hand that Giotto was holding and even his face felt warm – burning.

Giotto swallowed once before speaking. He was staring hard at the blanket, anywhere except for the brunet. The next thing he was going to say was embarrassing enough already, he didn't need anyone to see his steadily reddening face. "There's a festival tomorrow. It's kind of a tradition in this town. So, basically what I'm asking is... Tsuna, do you want to come along with me?"

A sharp intake of breath, accompanied by the blush on his face increasing in another shade. "But isn't there other people that you can ask along?"

"Of course. But I want to go with you."

Tsuna felt his heart skip a beat. In his life, there had been many people who wanted him to be gone, like his classmates and those people who felt that he was nothing more than a clumsy idiot who failed at everything; but for someone to tell him that he wanted his company... it was no doubt a first for him.

"You don't want to?"

"I..." Tsuna trailed off, unsure which was supposed to be the better choice.

After he heard that there was going to be a festival, the brunet couldn't help but be curious, but he didn't want to be the person holding Giotto down. There must be another person Giotto preferred to go with. And that person was definitely not him.

_But I want to go with you._

"If you don't mind me... I'll attend the festival together with you."

Giotto smiled brightly even though Tsuna was facing in the opposite direction and wouldn't be able to see his face. He was feeling genuine happiness – a feeling that sent warm vibes to every part of his body, leaving warmth in its trail.

"Thank you, Tsuna."

* * *

**Author's notes: **Sorry that it took longer this time. I'll try my very best to update as quickly as I can but my examinations are coming up again (wishing that I can just shut the door and keep them away) and I'll probably prioritise my studies since it's the year that I have to sit for my entrance exams. So, please spare me if I take a little bit longer to update sometimes because I have my hands full here.

I really appreciate your understanding.


	9. Present for you

_Chapter 9 tells of a present for a feverish child_

It was six in the evening and Tsuna was still in front of the mirror, fidgeting nervously as he checked his reflection yet again to make sure that he looked decent enough. He didn't want to dress shabbily and embarrass Giotto, especially since the latter took the initiative to ask him out today.

_To ask him out today..._

Tsuna shook his head vigorously for a good ten seconds in attempt to clear his thoughts and allow the blush on his face to subside. He still couldn't come to terms with the fact that he actually agreed to go to the festival with Giotto so easily last night. What was he thinking?

Wasn't it weird to go with one of his ancestors ? Especially when Giotto knew and accepted the fact that he was actually the Vongola Decimo already. Besides, he didn't know much about Italy 400 years ago and was sure that he wouldn't be able to keep up with the festival, celebrations, customs or even the correct etiquette. Heck, he was even facing slight difficulties in speaking Italian right now!

There was definitely someone else that Giotto wanted to go with... like his great-great-great-grandmother? Or perhaps he hadn't met her yet... But, he would definitely meet her soon right? Tsuna hoped that he would be able to see how Giotto's wife would look like before he returned back to his own time frame.

Maybe she's really pretty, with long brown hair and eyes. Or maybe she is really powerful and uses gloves like Giotto. This way, both of them can fight together and they can protect each other's backs...

_'WAIT! WAIT FOR A MOMENT!' _Tsuna screamed at himself in his mind and looked up at the mirror to see his reflection. D-Did he just imagine himself as Giotto's wife? No, that was impossible. What he thought was just about someone that looked like him – yet at the same time, it wasn't him. It definitely wasn't him!

Feeling an unusual weight on top of his head, Tsuna glanced up and looked straight into Giotto's sky blue orbs.

"What are you doing, Tsuna? It's unusual to see you so deep in thought. And, if you don't hurry up the entire festival would be over before you even step out of this place," Giotto teased while he happily ruffled Tsuna's chocolate brown locks.

He was only dressed in a simple white shirt and this made Tsuna feel overdressed. Speaking the truth, the clothes that he wore to this era – namely, his school uniform – was far too modern to be seen on the streets outside, and the clothes that he bought ever since arriving in this time frame was a little too big for him and Tsuna couldn't feel at ease if he didn't put on one more layer of clothes.

"Stop teasing me all the time! Besides, it's supposed to be a night festival so it starts only at seven, right?" Tsuna pouted slightly and pulled away, standing just out of reach.

"But there are many other things that we can do before they officially start the festival," Giotto grinned and stepped towards the brunet, grabbing hold of one of his hands and proceeded to drag the poor boy out of the room. "Like feasting and making sure the mood is right for..."

"Mood?" Tsuna gaped blankly as he watched the horrifying image of Giotto emitting a menacing and evil aura as he tried to curb his desire to let out an evil laugh. "What exactly do you mean by that? Why on earth do we need mood in a festival celebration? What exactly are you planning?"

A smile played at the corners of Giotto's lips. "Well, who knows?"

_o0o0o_

The festival seemed more normal and familiar to him than Tsuna expected – like most of the school festivals back in Japan, which he was used to. There were food stalls and game stalls, as well as those that sell merchandise. But of course, it never occurred to the brunet that all festivals were originally similar in form and were varied slightly when they were passed down in generations due to the mistakes when conveyed from generation to generation.

Tsuna was glad that he agreed to come to this festival. He could clearly see the customs and traditions the people in this town practiced, through their attire and the goods on sale. This could actually become part of his motivation to learn more about Italy whenever Reborn tries to teach him about that particular country. At least, his motivation would probably allow him to reduced the chances he would get bombed during one of Reborn's spartan lessons.

"You won another one again, G-san?"

G nodded as he stared down with a look of pure annoyance. His arms were overflowing from the sheer amount of prizes he won at the game stalls – ranging from delicious looking food to useless stuffed toys and redundant materials that he would not even bother to waste his brain cells trying to figure out what they were.

"Even if you use that expression, I know that you never throw all of those away! Since young, you have been keeping all these items in your room right? Your room is overflowing with them!" Giotto pointed at G's twitching eyebrows and burst into laughter.

G returned the blond's insults by extending an index finger to point at Giotto's empty hands. "I don't want to be told that by you! You didn't even win anything even though you stayed at the stall and played longer than me!"

Seriously, who on earth would believe that the boss of a steadily growing mafia family couldn't even aim and fire a gun properly? But then again, that might be the reason why Giotto chose those gloves as he main weapon instead of something more practical during fighting.

"Here, I hate sweet things," G scowled slightly while holding out the candy apple he just won, at Tsuna. After the brunet decided that it was perfectly alright to accept the gift, he took it over and licked at the sugar coating. It had been so long since he ate one of these.

"I seriously doubt that G can ever be honest to anyone, especially himself," Giotto sighed as he watched the crimson haired man storm off, glaring at all the humans who dared to block his way. Even when attempting to give a present, G always seemed so reluctant.

"But G-san has always been honest to you. Everything that he says to you has true emotions in them and he isn't hiding anything."

Giotto laughed while he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, I'm... you know... an exception! There are always exceptions, right? Besides, I'm his childhood friend so it doesn't really count! We grew up together so it would be weird if he still didn't trust me enough to speak the truth to me!"

Tsuna scratched the back of his head awkwardly when he realised that he just asked a very silly question, judging from the answer he received. "I guess that's true. Um... Is there any other place to go after this?" Tsuna attempted to quickly change the subject before Giotto managed to say something witty and made him feel more pathetic than what he felt already.

"Well, " Giotto trailed off and went deep into thought. "The sun has already set already so I guess it's finally time for the floating candles. It's the main purpose of this whole festival."

"Floating candles?"

Tsuna looked in the direction which Giotto pointed at - the river - and could see clearly that it was sparkling, especially since it was glittering and sparkling from the candles floating on the surface of the river. The small lights from the candle as the boats slowly floated away was illuminated the river, and the way they flickered made the entire area seem so pretty and calming.

Feeling very interested in this weird custom that he had never seen before, Tsuna rushed to the middle of the bridge that overlooked the river and peered down. It was then that he realised that the candles were placed in paper boats and were not actually floating on the river by itself.

"What are they doing?" Tsuna questioned, wondering what was the real meaning behind this practice.

Giotto kept pace with Tsuna easily and sipped as his own cup of juice as he followed the brunet's gaze to see what he was looking at. "They are making wishes."

Tsuna blinked. No matter what, he never thought that it was for that purpose.

"They write their wishes on a paper then fold it into a boat and while praying that it will come true, they put a lighted candle shining with hope and determination on it before setting it free. It's said to float all the way to the far end of the world while carrying the person's wish with it and when God sees the boat, he'd pick it up, read it and grant the wish – well, that's the reasoning behind this process."

"Sounds wonderful. Do all their wishes really come true?"

"No idea," Giotto admitted. "Do you want to try it out?"

Tsuna smiled and immediately made his way over to the river bank to take two pieces of paper and handed one over to the blond. "Of course! It's part of the festival anyway, right?"

Giotto nodded as he picked up an ink pen and scribbled his wish for the year on the paper before quickly folding it and placing the candle in the middle of the boat. Then slowly, he set the entire mass onto the surface of the river and watched as it floated down the river.

Although being born in this town, this was one of the events that the blond had never tried before, since his father – and himself – didn't really believe in such stuff and relied more on their own power to achieve what they want instead of trying to depend on some existence that might not even exist.

"Hey Tsuna, what did you wish for?" Giotto asked, trying to peek and make out the words while the brunet was busy folding the paper.

"D-Don't look!" Tsuna snapped and immediately tried to hide the boat behind his back. He didn't want anyone to see the wish he made, especially not Giotto! That would be far too embarrassing! Then, why on earth did he even write it down in the first place anyway?

"Jeez, just tell me about your wish! Maybe I can even grant it for you! Or perhaps... you want to hear about the wish I made first before you would tell me about yours?"

"N-No! Of course not! A-And, didn't you hear this famous saying before? It goes something like... 'A wish wouldn't come true if you tell someone else else about it'!"

Giotto looked away., a trace of guilt reflected in his eyes. He was feeling kind of bad for almost ruining Tsuna's dream – even though he never heard of that particular saying before, not to mention that he hardly trusted anything supernatural or superstitious. "That might be true, but..."

"No buts! Just promise me that you won't try to look at it! I want my wish to be granted, okay?" Tsuna pointed out while fixing the candle firmly to the bottom of the boat and placing it gently on the surface of the water so it would be able to float down the river with the wishes of the other people.

Proof that he traveled back in time to the past.

Evidence that he certainly existed in this era.

_Yes, Evi.._

"Tsuna are you alright? What happened!"

Said brunet had just collapsed into Giotto's arms. He was unconscious and his breathing was uneven and his face was flushed. Tsuna was running a high fever even though he was so energetic and showed no signs of any illness just several seconds ago.

"Answer me, Tsuna! HEY!"

_o0o0o_

When Tsuna regained consciousness, it was already very late at night – or rather, very early in the morning. He slowly sat up on the bed and the piece of wet cloth on his forehead fell off. There was no doubt that he had been carried back home – and very possibly by Giotto too – since there was no one else than Giotto beside him when he passed out – but where was that blond right now?

"So you are awake already?" Giotto stepped into the room and quickly closed the door behind him. "Are you feeling better?"

A small smile lifted the corners of Tsuna's lips. "Y-Yes I'm fine already! Perfectly fine! So you can go out and play with the others already! Sorry for falling ill even though it was supposed to be a fun festival!"

Giotto chuckled at the sight of Tsuna babbling out an apology that made no sense to him whatsoever.

"Tsuna," Giotto sat down on the bed beside the brunet and placed his forehead against the latter's to measure his temperature. At that exact same moment, Tsuna felt his heart thumping almost twice as fast as what it was supposed to and his face heated up at a rapid pace. "Looks like you are still a little feverish. If you want to recover by tomorrow, you better go back to sleep."

Tsuna blinked his eyes twice. He was already feeling so much better than before so why did he have to go right back to sleep after he finally regained consciousness? "What about you? Aren't you going to sleep too?"

Giotto raised a hand up and placed it on top of Tsuna's head – an intimate gesture which was full of love. "After you do. I have to take care of a few more things so you can go to sleep first."

"But-"

Interrupted suddenly by a pair of lips pressed firmly against his own, the feeling of it magical and soft that Tsuna immediately felt himself melting and all logical thoughts and ideas disappearing from his mind. However the kiss itself only lasted for a mere few seconds, the tingling feeling lingering at his lips, before Giotto pulled away and quickly tucked Tsuna into bed.

"It's a present as thanks for accompanying me to the festival, since I couldn't get anything for you... And you said this before – 'no buts', right? Now, move over and just go straight to sleep like a good kid, okay, Tsunayoshi?"

Tsuna stared down at the this sheet of blanket and hoped that his bangs were long enough to cover all traces of his blush before he swiftly flopped down on the bed, rolled over to the half that temporarily belonged to him and buried his face in the pillow, pretending to be fast asleep as soon as he deemed it possible.

Somehow it seemed that it was getting more and more weird for him to be sleeping in the same room as Giotto as days passed. And recently, he had been thinking that he had been feeling a little... strange around the blond, and this feeling was like how he felt whenever he looked at Kyoko – only a million times stronger.

But this feeling resembled love too much for Tsuna not to care. Besides it was growing every single time he looked at the blond – growing more and more – and it was engulfing his entire being.

And it looked like God has abandoned him or just wanted to make a fool out of him for his own amusement, because he didn't even bother to grant the wish he made. On the contrary, God was actually granting the exact opposite of his wish!

Speaking of which, his wish was...

_Please don't let me fall in love with Giotto more than I already am._

_- Sawada Tsunayoshi_

* * *

**Author's notes: **First thing first, I just want to mention that if you find the festival mentioned in this fanfiction familiar, it is is based off on the traditional Japanese Obon festival (even though I just borrowed the idea of the paper boats and candles). Of course, the meaning of the festival is totally different as well. Please don't get confused.

Next, I'm sorry that I took _this_ long to post. I survived through another one of my cram-exam periods and after that I updated other fanfiction first. Especially to all the people who were waiting eagerly for me to update this. I promise that the next chapter would definitely be up way faster than this was (obviously).


	10. Medicine and devices

_Chapter 10 tells of medicine and a malfunctioning device_

"You guys are late!" Giotto complained and led the two men into the building. "I have been waiting out here for almost an hour already! And, did the two of you remember to bring what I told you to?"

"Of course we did! We are not as unfeeling as a _certain_ someone who sent a person of utterly no importance over to us – not to mention the fact that we haven't even seen him before – barely two hours ago and commanded us to get our asses over here at once, despite it being logically impossible for even super humans to travel past two towns in an hour, and did not even allow us to complain or refuse."

"But you did-"

"But the issue is that even though we actually survived this long and stupid trip, we didn't even get a word of thanks from this emotionally crippled creature in front of us."

Daemon pointed at Giotto for a short moment before pouting and circled his arms around Alaude's neck, allowing himself to be dragged forward by a single millimeter before being harshly flung onto the hard sandy ground.

"Don't touch me, you weak masochist. I'll cuff you to death," Alaude threatened menacingly. The sheer amount of frost present in his voice seemed to turn the surrounding atmosphere enveloping the trio biting cold and Giotto shivered against his will.

The blond quickly reached out a single hand towards his left, directing Alaude and Daemon towards the front door of the inn and tried his very best to keep the wide friendly smile on his face although he felt that he wanted nothing more than to roast the two idiots for walking so slowly.

Besides, Daemon wasn't making anything better by trying to use every single precious opportunity he could find to cling on to his beloved French lover, who couldn't even be bothered so much as to reply to any of his childish antics. It was more than obvious that Alaude wanted to finish up whatever he had to do in this town and return home before night fell. That man was indeed one of the rare few who preferred to spend his nights back at home in his own comfortable bed, not in some small room two towns away from his beautiful mansion.

Once everyone was gathered in the inn, Giotto reached a hand out at Alaude, a gesture to demand for the medicine he instructed the two men to buy and bring along earlier that day. Grumpily, Alaude reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a whole bottle of pills, tossing it over to Giotto who caught the bottle easily.

"They look so bitter and gross! Is there a need for Tsuna to eat all those objects?" Asari asked gingerly. From what he gathered previously, he knew that Tsuna had an extremely huge dislike for anything bitter. "Tsuna has recovered from the fever already and all that is left for him to the road of full recovery is only to rest up. Medicine wouldn't exactly do much at this point of time."

"Don't quote something like that, especially if it has no scientific backing," G retorted, throwing in a glare for good measure. As usual, he was standing in a far corner of the room and was leaning on the wall while smoking.

Asari immediately opened his mouth to argue, or at least say something witty back, but Knuckle interrupted before he could – and the worst thing was that the black haired man was on G's side.

It was a 2 to 1 and Asari had no doubt that he lost – totally. The Japanese man shut his mouth and continued to stay silent. There was no way for him to be able to help Tsuna this time round.

_o0o0o_

"M-M-MEDICINE?" Tsuna howled, backing away to the far side of his bed – or at least as far away from that evil and disgusting looking concoction. Heck, was it even consumable? "I'm perfectly fine now and there's no trace of the fever left. I swear, I only need one hour of sleep and I'll be as good as new. I don't wan... I mean, I don't need to drink that _thing_ at all!"

Giotto sighed as if he had anticipated that Tsuna would definitely kick up a fuss about the cup of liquid. "Ill or not, this would help you to get better, and it will help you to sleep better too."

Tsuna covered his mouth with both hands and averted his face from the full cup. There was no way he was ever going to drink that. Even the smell alone had the bitter taste in it. If that stuff went down his throat, God knows what might happen to his poor body!

"Haven't you drank any medicine before? It's a nice experience."

Nice... experience? No way! Tsuna could remember all the times he had to drink the foul smelling substance, and never once did it make his condition better – if not worse. And 9 out of 10 of the times he was forced to do so normally involved Reborn and Leon, who was changed into the shape of a gun, together with numerous threats that normally involved tearing him from limb to limb without mercy.

"Tsunayoshi," Giotto warned, eyes glinting dangerously as he held the cup out towards Tsuna. "Drink it. Alaude and Daemon took the effort to come so far to give you this. If you don't appreciate what they did, Alaude would..."

Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut, grabbed the cup and poured the entire concoction down his throat. He didn't even wait for Giotto to finish his sentence because he already knew what the blond was going to say.

If the First Generation Cloud Guardian was like his own Cloud Guardian, Hibari Kyoya – which apparently he was – then the threat he would give would be along the lines of 'biting you to death', and Tsuna didn't feel like being threatened, even when he was in the past.

He was supposed to be spending time leisurely in the past while he still could.

"Good boy," Giotto grinned and placed a hand on Tsuna's head and passed the brunet a cup of water. Tsuna gulped it down greedily – anything to wash out the awful taste in his mouth. "Get some rest and recover fully by tomorrow, I'll go downstairs to welcome the guests."

Tsuna pouted slightly and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. He didn't want to rebuke Giotto, neither was he interested in going downstairs to meet Alaude and Daemon Spade. Besides, Daemon was a man who lived through centuries, maybe he might even recognise him as the Decimo and spill the secret. Tsuna did not want to take the risk.

He couldn't change the history and he had to survive past all of this in order to get back to his time frame.

He had no other choice.

_o0o0o_

"It's finally completed!" Giannini announced happily, wringing his hands nervously as Reborn evaluated his hard work over the past three days. "It's within the time limit you gave me and with this, we can go find and welcome back Boss anytime!"

Reborn jumped up on the time machine and stared down at the numerous buttons, wondering if he was right to trust Giannini's skills – even though it couldn't be helped that Giannini's father was currently very busy helping out Vongola Nono, Timoteo, back at the Headquarters in Italy.

Giannini gestured to the buttons proudly while trying to show Reborn how to use it. "If you press this button, and this one, together with this – at the same time, you can activate the device and open a portal to the past. And all of us would be able to go back to the past and bring Boss bac-"

Before Giannini could even finish half of what he intended to say, a grenade flew past Giannini and landed on top of the large piece of metal. With his quick reflexes, Reborn managed to leap down and proceed to a safer place before the bomb went off.

However the time machine was not so lucky, and knowing that he was in deep trouble, Lambo sprinted down the corridor as quickly as he could, brawling his eyes out from the sheer amount of killer intent Reborn was emitting.

"Oh no!" Giannini exclaimed in shock and ran up towards his beloved invention which he spent three whole days and nights creating – the only invention that would ever allow Tsuna to return back to his own time frame. "Half of the buttons are busted! There's no way that I can use this to its full functions anymore!"

Reborn glared at Giannini darkly, which was a silent method to stop the latter from continuing his shrieking. Finding out the problem with the time machine and correcting them was currently more important than chasing about a certain kid by the name of Lambo.

"Are there any serious problems? Do you need more time to rebuild that invention? Just to let you know, Tsuna has been in the past for almost a week already and I'm not sure if staying in the past for too long would have any side effects on Tsuna's body so in other words, we are running short on time. You can't spend too much time rebuilding th-"

Giannini looked like he was on the verge of pulling what was left of his hair out.

"It's impossible! There's no way I can ever rebuild a time machine like that from scratch again! I used the ten year bazooka that transported Boss to build this! If I have to build another time machine, I have to use another ten year bazooka, however, there is just no way that two different bazookas will ever break in the exact same way so it is impossible!"

"So is this device useless now? Is there no other way possible for us to ever let Tsuna return back here once more?"

"That's not exactly true..." Giannini trailed off and inspected the condition of the time machine closer. "All is impossible is for us to go to the past now. Another part of the problem is that although we can open the portal five times in total, there is only one time that this device has left to open the portal large enough for Boss to cross. And it will become too difficult for the machine to sustain the portal so the weakening impacts between time frames will only last for an instant. The longest that I can hold the portal up is merely ten seconds."

"Can it be healed? Are the damages on the time machine reversible?"

Giannini shook his head, the slow speed emphasizing the severity of the issue. "I'm afraid it is impossible to reconstruct or strengthen the device. The damages will remain."

Reborn frowned. He clearly understood the entire problem even though what Giannini just said was nothing but merely the muddled and mashed up version of the facts all together. "So what you mean exactly is that we only have one chance to persuade Tsuna to step through the portal to return back here. And if he doesn't want to or miss the opportunity, then there wouldn't be a second chance, right?"

Giannini nodded, affirming Reborn's fears as being valid.

The Sun Arcobaleno looked down and his fedora hat shielded his face, making him appear to be merely deep in thought. "This is very tricky. We definitely have to plan our timing perfectly – if it's too soon, Tsuna might not believe what we tell him and if it's too late, Tsuna might be too attached to the past to want to return."

Giannini shrugged, a slight gesture to tell Reborn to continue giving his commands. He needed a deadline to prepare a safe route for the Boss to travel forward in time.

* * *

**Author's notes: **All of Primo's guardians have finally been mentioned at least once in here. Frankly speaking, I am unsure if I would actually make them appear in the story in later chapters as well, though I probably should and would. Feel free to tell me if there are any specific guardian that you would like to see in the later chapters so I can focus on him more ;DD


	11. Vongola Familgia

_Chapter 11 tells of the creation of Vongola familgia_

"I swear that I'll shove dynamites down that stupid cow's throat and blast him off to the moon! How dare he keep foiling our plans at the last moment? Does he even understand what he has done, and the danger that he placed Juudaime in?" Gokudera grumbled angrily as he stormed around the room.

He was beyond furious.

Reborn had told them to assemble a little while before and informed them of the damages Lambo did to the time machine and the changes it would make to their original plans. After hearing the news, Gokudera had immediately whipped out all the weapons he had in stock and imagined how to slaughter the cow kid brutally with each of them.

"Now now, it's not the time to start thinking about how to murder Lambo right? We have to find out about the dangers that Tsuna is in while he is in the past, right?"

Gokudera rolled his eyes at Yamamoto's statement and glared down again at the book in is hands. "Are you stupid? That's what I've been doing for the past two hours – research! Besides, I would have done this even if Reborn didn't tell me to!"

The silver haired teenager handed Yamamoto the book in his hands, opened up to the exact page he wanted the other to read. "It says here that this is a true account of a kid who went back about two centuries into the past. He stayed there for about two months and when he finally returned home, he came down with a high fever and died several days after."

"Isn't that already proving that Tsuna is in a critical situation? We should inform Reborn immediately!" Yamamoto was genuinely freaking out. This wasn't like him. He was supposed to be calm and composed no matter what the situation was – the tranquil rain that washes everything away.

"Not yet. We need to collect more information to make sure that this isn't just a one time thing. We need to make sure if all the time-travelling jerks all fell ill or this was just a one time thing," Gokudera insisted and brushed his fingers past the spines of numerous books placed on the shelf, randomly pulling a few out to check the contents.

_o0o0o_

Giotto yawned and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He had been up the entire night, taking care of Tsuna. It had been difficult trying to deal with paperwork and remembering to change the towel on Tsuna's forehead all the time. Thanks to his own hard work, it seemed like the brunet's fever had went down completely.

"Don't forget that there's the meeting with the others in fifteen minutes time. It's high time that we tell them of your plans to convert this vigilante group into a part of the Mafia. "

The blond slumped against the wooden desk as G came over to collect his work. Hopefully, G wouldn't mind several water stains on the papers – he hid them in the middle of the stack. Well, it wasn't like it was totally his fault.

He really didn't want to face was was next. There was no doubt that his friends might not forgive him for making this decision all by himself beforehand. Even though Cozart was eager to accept and implement the suggestion the blond made, Giotto was sure that the others will not.

Call it a gut feeling, sixth sense, hyper intuition. Anything is fine.

And back to the discussion which was scheduled to take place in a few minutes time, they had to discuss about moving to the new Headquarters that Lampo's father was willing to provide for them. Also, Lampo had sent in the details about their first job. They had to murder an old man who, according to the data Lampo gave them, controlled the sale and trading of salt in the area.

It was a simple job and vital information had already been provided to them. Also, G was successful in gathering all the other information that they might possibly need. The real issue was when they would start the Real Operation tomorrow. Would everyone want to take part?

Especially since it contained an intended assassination attempt.

Yet he knew that he couldn't blame anyone who wanted to withdraw. But he had already made up his mind that he would be the one to kill the man – he wouldn't allow anyone else to bear the burden of taking another person's life. He was the Boss, this was his responsibility.

Tsuna opened his eyes slightly and reached a hand out, which the blond grabbed and clasped tightly. "How are you feeling?"

Tsuna beamed up at him while removing the piece of cloth still on his forehead. "I'm fine already. Thanks for taking care of me, Gio-nii."

Giotto chuckled and ruffled Tsuna's hair lightly. "I'll bring lunch up now. Just rest for a little while more,okay?"

Tsuna sat up in bed when the door closed and sighed. How much had he been sleeping for this past few days? He felt like he could skip sleeping for three full weeks!

_o0o0o_

"Is there really no doubt about this?" Reborn asked himself as he glanced through the books Gokudera passed him. He felt like there was hardly a need to ask, since he already knew of the answers. No matter how many times he stared at the pages, nothing was going to change. Those biographies and autobiographies were not going to become any kinder.

According to the books, the people who went to the past stayed there for a period of time – the longest for almost three months. It seemed that those who stayed there the longest died the quickest. And Tsuna already stayed in the past for about a week already.

"The symptoms of the body being stressed out is sudden illnesses, such as fevers. And then the body would slowly be destroyed from inside out without the host's knowing. It's a scary and unpredictable way of killing. We need to make sure that we have the necessary medicine to cure all forms of stress from Tsuna's extended stay in the past," Reborn clarified the issue.

Gokudera nodded and took the notebook Reborn handed to him. It contained numerous phone numbers and Gokudera understood that Reborn wanted him to call up each and everyone of them to ask about the medicine. Damn, it looked like it was going to be a long night.

_o0o0o_

The inn was closed for business today. Everyone staying in the inn had taken a day off from work and were gathered at the lounge. Giotto had just finished speaking what he wanted to. The room was dead silent for a short moment before everyone suddenly started protesting.

"Why the mafia? This was different from what you first promised!"

"That's right! Weren't we supposed to fight against the mafia? So why are we joining them now?"

"Bastard, you lied to us from the very first day right? You just wanted us to join you in your silly little game and was laughing at us when we participated without suspecting a damn thing, didn't you. Asshole! Do you even know the pain of losing someone you lov-"

"SILENCE!" G's fist came crashing down on the counter, and the wood splintered under the force. Everyone turned to stare at him.

G exhaled sharply. It wasn't like he blamed them for saying so much - he made quite a fuss the last time too - but there were some things that were not supposed to be said. He glanced briefly at Giotto from the corner of his eye. The blond's eyes were downcast and he looked miserable. There was no doubt that he was recalling his father who died saving this town.

How was it possible for that imbecile to think that the son of a man who loved this town so much that he would even die for it – would be so heartless to tear down every single thing that his dad cared for. Could they even imagine what it was like when Giotto saw his father dying right in front of his eyes? Or perhaps how difficult it was for Giotto to get over his sorrow and resolve to protect this town like how his father did? One wrong step and it was possible for him to end up hating and destroying everything!

Enraged, G glared darkly at the insolent fool who muttered those hurtful words without thinking. "Idiot. There's no one in this room who didn't lose someone they loved because of the mafia. Everyone here hates the mafia - and that's why we'll join it. To destroy it from inside out. This is the only way we can be certain that we brought it down."

o0o0o

Tsuna leaned against the door lightly, making sure that the door didn't creak under his weight. Judging from the noise level, he could already guess what just happened. Giotto was telling them of his decision to join the mafia. However, everyone there hated the system and it seemed like they were going to reject Giotto's offer.

This was, without a doubt, the turning point that Tsuna was waiting for. Whether Giotto will be able to convince them and thus create the mafia familgia Vongola, or fail and allow Vongola to disappear from the past and present forever. Every step taken was crucial. One mistake, and the entire future would change.

Tsuna wondered if he should help out. This situation might not have anything to do with him. But for all he knew, he could have already created a time paradox when he arrived in front of Giotto, or when he told the founder of his situation.

All of this could be his fault.

Tsuna sighed and suddenly all the noise downstairs disappeared. Anxious and curious, the brunet peeked out and spotted everyone in the lounge sipping away at the beer in their mugs.

Had they accepted Giotto's suggestion?

Suddenly, one of the men stood up and Tsuna noticed that he was trembling. Without hesitation, he threw the mug at Giotto and the porcelain cracked against the mop of blond hair, the liquid spilling out. Giotto bent to pick up the broken pieces.

"I'm leaving. I can't forgive those bastards, let alone join them. They robbed and killed my wife and my unborn child. If you guys want to join the mafia, by all means. I'll be sure to take revenge even if I'm alone. Just make sure you guys don't grovel at my feet and plead when I come to take your lives!"

Giotto paused but didn't say anything when the man left. Tsuna recognised his voice as the man who spoke right before G shouted. Slowly, a few men from around the room stood up and followed as well.

With eyes as cold as ice, Giotto stalked to the middle of the room. "Who else wants to leave? This is your last chance to break free. You don't have to continue to stay with us if you don't want to."

The remaining people in the lounge stared at Giotto like he was mad. They had never seen Giotto like this before. Everything about him was foreign, cold and unfeeling – his eyes, voice, posture – and it reminded Tsuna of the times when he saw Giotto's will from the Vongola ring. The brunet shivered in fear.

"I'll stay. I promised you that I will support you from the very start."

"Me too! Even if there's only despair left, I'll accompany Vongola because I believe that it's the only hope left in this cruel world!"

"I'm... leaving... I don't want to kill anyone. Who knows what they might tell us to do when we join the mafia? I don't want to kill anyone!"

Giotto cringed at the claim and turned away. The people who wanted to leave dashed through the open doorway and those who wanted to remain swore loyalty to Giotto.

This was the turning point of Vongola and only twelve others, out of the original thirty people remained behind.

* * *

**Author's notes: **I'm only revealing a little of the reason behind Tsuna's illness here and also about Giotto telling the others of his plan to turn Vongola into part of the Mafia. Then, there's the split whereby some people join Giotto and others couldn't accept his plans and chose to leave instead.

I know that the story is proceeding a little too slow ever since Tsuna got that fever, and I will speed things up a little from the next chapter onwards. I'm sorry for the really short chapter this time round (not that the previous chapters were long either). I've just been discharged from the hospital two days ago – had this ridiculously high fever – and although I recovered a few days ago, the doctors refused to let me leave or even let me hold a pen. They were like: "Rest. You need it." And, I was bored to tears. And I obviously hadn't finished this chapter before I was admitted in. But now, I'm _completely_ revived and will obviously continue writing.


	12. Choices

_Chapter 12 tells of the different choices to make_

"G."

The crimson haired man standing right behind him looked up with a bored look, watching silently as his childhood friend reached into the clear blue stream water. Giotto was trying his best to wash off all traces of the pungent smelling liquid from the white dress shirt. A black tie was placed right beside him, the formal attire unkempt and caked with dried blood.

"I never knew that so there was so much blood in a human. And the windpipe was so hard to cut through."

Giotto's hands were trembling from the horror of just having murdered someone intentionally – the look of pure horror on the dead man's face burnt directly onto his retinas - although he was hiding it. He couldn't believe that he made such a fundamental mistake of attempting to decapitate the man. He should have just used his flames and gloves to punch him right through his heart.

Seriously, the man would have been in less pain – and the job would have been cleaner if that was the case. Then, there wouldn't be blood splattered all over the walls and floor.

"That's why I told you that I would do it instead."

"That's why I told you that I don't need your help, G. I'm the leader of Vongola. How am I supposed to be the leader of a mafia familgia if I can't even kill one stupid old man?"

G crossed his arms over his chest, not smoking for once, and scoffed at Giotto's attempt to take responsibility for his own decisions. One small part of himself still couldn't believe that the person he was seeing in front of him was actually his childhood friend – Giotto had been so kind and cheerful back then. Maybe, even a little clumsy and naive.

Really, the surroundings can change the nature of a human. G finally understood what the founder of that sentence meant.

"You've changed."

Giotto stood up and pulled on his shirt once more, using his long black mantle to cover the remaining few reddish-brown stains. "It's called maturing. Let's head back. The police will be over to investigate soon and I rather stay out of trouble."

_o0o0o_

"Asari-san, where is Giotto?" Tsuna inquired. He didn't want to appear pesky but he had been searching for the blond almost the whole day already and there was still no sign of him. Not to mention that he overheard what happened yesterday, so he was worried for Giotto's safety. Those guys might have ambushed him or something.

The dark haired man looked up from wiping the kitchen counter and shook his head. It was not like he failed to anticipate Tsuna asking him this same question, but Giotto had asked him not to mention anything about the mission that he and G went on.

"Sorry Tsuna, but I'm not sure," Asari lied smoothly, feeling a little guilty when he saw the genuine disappointment in the brunet's expression.

Unhappily, Tsuna sunk into the seat opposite Lampo and sighed. If even Asari didn't know anything then Giotto probably wanted sometime alone to himself. He shouldn't interfere with anything at all, even if he had even brought his pills and gloves along with him just in case.

Besides, there was no one else left for him to ask. Knuckle had already left for his work at the church early this morning; Daemon and Alaude had insisted on returning back home instead of remaining here for even a fraction of a single second longer; and G was probably together with Giotto or in the midst of some negotiation with some other company right now.

Lampo folded his arms across his chest and leaned forward, towards Tsuna. "If you are talking about the founder of Vongola, he left on a mission with G just now. The mission is from my Dad."

Unfortunately, Asari was out of hearing range to stop Lampo and the curious expression Tsuna had on fueled his enthusiasm to continue.

"They have to assassinate Marco, the man who is in charge of the trade monopoly in this area. Recently that man became corrupted and started to accept bribes from the rich people, in turn listening to their orders and increase the price of all the essential survival items – oil, salt, and even rice."

This was the truth. Food prices have risen way too high and so the people in the town are facing difficulties to buy their meals. In fact, many restaurants have closed down because of the lack of profit.

There might not be any methods to stop this prolonged misery except to eliminate the source, however Tsuna wonder if that was really the true solution – Giotto had seemed to him like a guy who hated using violence to solve all the problems even though they were the most common, basic and easiest solutions to most problems three-quarters of the time.

"When is he coming back?" The brunet asked. He was not really sure if he was actually interested to hear the answer or not. To him, it was probably just to keep the conversation with Lampo flowing.

At least he understood for someone that important, he would surely have plenty of guards. And to sneak past that many people to reach the person in the highest position would be tough, but Tsuna knew that Giotto was skilled enough to evade them all.

There was no need to worry.

"I don't know. Whenever he finished his mission, I guess. He still has to prepare to move into the new Vongola Headquarters my Dad prepared for him," Lampo muttered as he twiddled his thumbs like a bored child.

"Stop right there," Asari warned when he brought out dinner for the three of them. "I thought Giotto instructed you specifically not to mention this to Tsuna?"

Lampo shrugged. He was always acting more like a spoilt brat when G wasn't around because it meant that there was no one to scold or beat him for stirring up trouble. "Thought that he should know anyway. What's the big deal in hiding all of these anyway?"

Yes, Tsuna would find out all about it sooner or later – and it wasn't like he could do anything about it right now. He wasn't going to run out into the streets to find the blond, even if he managed to reach the scene without getting lost, there was a high chance that he would only get in the way.

He could only wait patiently for Giotto to return home.

_o0o0o_

The night village streets were empty, seemingly void of human life, and while walking down that long dark path together with G, they spotted the familiar redhead. Someone who they last met about a week ago.

"Cozart? What are you doing here?" There was no denying the fact that Giotto was shocked at seeing the faces of one of his best friends out here. Besides, Cozart didn't look like he was heading over to the inn, but waiting here for them instead – just as if he heard all about their recent conversion from a vigilante group into a mafia familgia and was here to demand an explanation.

"That's what I want to ask you, Giotto. Is it true that Vongola became part of the mafia?"

Just exactly what he expected. The blond nodded silently, telling Cozart wordlessly that what he heard was the truth. G tensed a little.

"Why?"

"To protect the people. The mafia have ways to get their hands on weapons, and with that name as a backing, I'll be able to crush the other mafia familgia without the police interfering. To me, it looks like a foolproof plan."

Cozart sighed, long since used to his friend's crazily rash ways enough to accept them. _No one who joined the mafia could quit it_. This was a Rule in that dark and brutal world and Cozart accepted this as well. He held out his hand towards Giotto for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you. I am the Boss of the Shimon Familgia, Shimon Cozart."

_o0o0o_

There was a soft sound behind him, at the other dark side of the room and Tsuna curled up tighter on his bed. It was approaching winter soon and the interior of the rooms were getting cold. The brunet knew he was poorly dressed for the season (with just a thin t-shirt and sweatpants) and the blankets he used were not exactly thick either.

Tsuna closed his eyes, and that was when he heard the sound again. It sounded like paper being cut by a sharp pair of scissors.

Once, twice. Then again.

It sounded like something was tearing slowly and Tsuna shivered in fear. He hadn't considered the possibility before, but there might indeed be a high chance that this place is haunted. It did look a little run down from the first sight, and …

The sound seemed to be getting louder and Tsuna found himself slowly turning around. At least if he were to be killed, let him know if it is a male of a female ghost first! Although he didn't really want to see the face of the monster which would most likely be disfigured, he could not help but be interested.

"Who are you referring to be a handsome and sexy male hitman, Dame Tsuna?"

The brunet perked up at that familiar voice and depressing nickname, instantly spinning around to see Reborn standing there.

Or rather, what looked to be Reborn.

There seemed to be something like a mirror which had a bright background, where the lights were on in the room that Reborn was at. Even so, Reborn appeared to be no more than something similar to a reflection - Tsuna was not able to reach him.

"Reborn! What are you doing here?"

"To save your sorry ass," Reborn explained, as unforgiving as ever when it came to using harsh words. "I think trust that you know this by now but you have been in the past for over a week already. Your body should be beginning to show signs of being unable to handle the large amount of stress from being transported so far back in time and for such a long period. To put it in simpler terms, Dame-Tsuna, you are dying."

_Dying._ Tsuna gulped.

"W-What do you mean? Besides, the ten year bazooka can't send me home even if I want to return and it's not really so bad over here," Tsuna laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. It wasn't like he wanted to leave this area so quickly. Vongola was still a small familgia and Tsuna wanted to see it grow.

No, he was just lying to himself. Truth be told, what he wanted was to remain by Giotto's side – even though it still felt weird for him to say it out loud to anyone, himself included.

"Like I expected, you have really been too captivated by the past and became attached," Reborn analysed the situation. It was obvious to him that Tsuna didn't want to go back to his old life in the future, but for what reason, he was still unclear.

However, he knew that if he intended to persuade Tsuna, then determining the root of his desire to remain here would be the top priority.

Reborn frowned. "Give me your reason, or I'll drag you home even if I need to." There was no exact way for him to do that, thanks to Lambo and his destroying skills, but Tsuna had no need to know about that fact. In this way he can make the boy feel threatened enough and hence, making it easier for him to convince Tsuna.

"Giotto. He needs my help," the brunet offered in a small voice. His face was reddening, looking as if he was embarrassed to even mention the blond's name.

Reborn closed his eyes for a brief moment and tugged down his fedora hat lower so it shielded his eyes from sight. He hadn't expected that the problem would be such a ridiculous subject but unfortunately, it was.

The No-Good Tsuna had finally fallen in love – and it was really true love, not that mindless admiration that he had for Sasagawa Kyoko.

"But if you remain here any longer, you will disappear into nothing. Even if you do not notice it, you are slowly rewriting the past and that will bring about a large change to the future. If you decide to get into such a relationship with the founder, everyone in the later generations would vanish. There is no escaping from this fate."

Tsuna gaped at Reborn, unable to believe what he just heard. First, the Arcobaleno told him that he would die but now he mention that he was going to vanish. Tsuna had no idea which was the real truth, or perhaps both were. He fell silent, unable to respond.

"But Reborn, I..."

He knew that he was weak, someone who was indecisive and didn't deserve the title of Vongola Decimo. But even so, there were a few times when he wanted some things just for himself. Like right now; this very moment.

"At the expense of other people's lives," Reborn added stubbornly, as if he could accurately guess what his student was thinking. He probably could.

"Do you wish to erase everyone's existence so badly? No one would remember you if you do so. Even your body in this time frame will slowly fade away, there is no way to evade this fate. We have done research on time travel. Your body will grow weaker and weaker and eventually you will die. The most common symptoms are recurring fevers and nosebleeds."

Tsuna clenched his fist, wishing that the thing behind him earlier was not Reborn but a really really scary ghost instead. Anything was better than this. There was no way that he would be able to make a decision so soon – even though he should have been prepared to leave at any given moment – and he hadn't given this topic much thought at all. He had evaded it whenever possible.

And he regretted his stupid decision to do so.

"At seven tomorrow night, I'll ask Giannini to open up a portal for you to enter and it will lead back here, to the future. The portal only works once and there wouldn't be a second chance. Make sure you come to a decision before then, Tsuna."

The brunet slid to the floor heavily when the light which Reborn brought together with him disappeared entirely, casting the room back into its original dark and cold form. He still had no idea what to do, whether he should return home or stay in the past.

He couldn't make up his mind, even though he already knew what was supposed to be the right answer. He didn't want to make up his mind.

_o0o0o_

"Giotto, you finally returned home!" Asari clapped his hands together when he heard the front door of the shop open just when the clock struck seven in the evening. "Was the mission a success? Do you want dinner?"

The blond grinned as he crossed the room and up the stairs. It was weird to smile right after performing that gruesome murder but oddly enough, it felt natural for him to do so. The cheerful side of him was acting up again, despite all the miserable stuff that were taking place one after another recently, and it was becoming a little difficult for him to totally suppress it and become sad and mopey. It didn't fit his character.

"Of course, but because I'm tired, I'll go straight to bed without dinner."

He could hear whispering going on and was sure that Asari had requested for G to fill him in on the mission details. He didn't mind, not especially. He would rather go to sleep than to go back to stop them. Besides, it wasn't like this was going to to be the last time he will kill someone.

Being a mafia boss meant that he had to battle with the other familgia many, many more times. And more people will die. This was just like a rule whereby the strong will survive and the weak will die. There wasn't a way to get past rule at all.

At least Cozart was the same, like him.

Giotto found a little comfort in this fact.

"Tsu-" Giotto wanted to knock on the door when he noticed from the gap under the door that there was a bright light coming from inside the room. However, he knew that there was only a single candle in the room – nothing that could give off such a bright beam of light.

Something weird was going on. Giotto tensed.

"_But if you remain here any longer, you will disappear into nothing. Even if you do not notice it, you are slowly rewriting the past and that will bring about a large change to the future. If you decide to get into such a relationship with the founder, everyone in the later generations would vanish. There is no escaping from this fate."_

It wasn't a voice that Giotto recognised. It made him wonder who was in the room together with Tsuna. Was it a visitor? But Tsuna wasn't on close terms with anyone in this time frame. And Asari would have informed him beforehand if there were any guests.

"_But Reborn, I..."_

Reborn. That was indeed a name that Giotto remembered hearing. Tsuna had mention him before when he was introducing himself as the Vongola Decimo.

Giotto lowered the hand that he wanted to use to knock and pressed his ear against the door. He didn't like the thought of eavesdropping but he was intrigued by what the person named Reborn said earlier.

If something was going to happen to Tsuna, he should know all about it, right?

Because he was his ancestor, brother, and... maybe something more.

Giotto touched his fingers to his lips when he remembered the kiss the other day. He still hadn't got over it totally yet. How stupid it was for him to just kiss Tsuna because he _felt_ like doing so the other day.

And Tsuna was sick that day too.

"_At the expense of other people's lives. Do you wish to erase everyone's existence so badly? No one would remember you if you do so. Even your body in this time frame will slowly fade away, there is no way to evade this fate. We have done research on time travel. Your body will grow weaker and weaker and eventually you will die. The most common symptoms are recurring fevers and nosebleeds."_

So Tsuna would die if he remained here or he could leave his side and go back to the future. Giotto stared down at his feet in silence.

"_At seven tomorrow night, I'll ask Giannini to open up a portal for you to enter and it will lead back here, to the future. The portal only works once and there wouldn't be a second chance. Make sure you come to a decision before then, Tsuna."_

The words seem to burn straight into Giotto's heart and the blond pushed himself away from the door, making his way back downstairs as calmly as he could, keeping a straight face on.

Somehow or rather, he found himself subconsciously pushing thoughts of all these silly little dying games to the back of his mind. He didn't want to think about them, even though they would keep appearing in his thoughts.

Really, he didn't want to think of it.

"Asari, I take back my words. I'll be eating dinner right now."

* * *

**Author's notes: **After spending a lot of brain juice on this... (collapse on the table) Feel like I'm getting retribution for making Tsuna drink that absolutely bitter concoction because I've been drinking bitter medicine myself for almost one whole week. And I'm slowly getting the feeling that I'm losing my touch on writing fluff... not that I wrote much of it in the first place (sighs) It's getting bitter... (blames the medicine for everything)


	13. Farewell and Home

_Chapter 13 tells of farewell and home_

The entire room was dead silent, even though all of Tsuna's guardians were gathered together and forced to squeeze into Giannini's terribly small, tiny and stuffy office - with the absence of Hibari Kyoya (he rejected the offer due to his great dislike of crowds and being near stupid herbivores) and Mukuro (who was still locked up in the depths of Vindice, unfortunately).

Giannini had been performing last minute maintenance on the device for the last couple of hours, making certain that the damages caused by a certain kid by the name of Lambo, did not cause unrepairable harm to anything that would indirectly endanger the life of the Boss when the brunet was travelling past dimensions and time frames to get back into the present time.

Almost like any other day, Gokudera and Yamamoto were arguing - with the exception of Lambo dangling upside down in between the two boys, tied with a thick rope to the ceiling and his afro stuffed full with dynamites.

"There there, calm down, Gokudera. I'm sure everything would turn out perfectly all right. Surely nothing would have happened to Tsuna and he will come home safely. That's the reason why Reborn and Giannini are working so hard, am I right?"

However, the silver haired teenager was never one to believe something such as Yamamoto's gut feeling. He wanted proof, scientific proof, and would not accept anything other than that.

"Will Boss be fine? Will he come back?" Chrome muttered question after question under her breath. Normally, she wouldn't have even be around but since Reborn specially went to invite her, and Mukuro had even asked her to attend this event, Chrome finally made up her mind to participate in the activity. But since she was here and heard everything that was said, she could not help but be worried.

On the other hand, Kyoko and Haru were specially left out of this gathering (they were not invited at all and Ryohei was ordered by Reborn to not tell his sister anything) mainly because they did not even know of Tsuna's disappearance and Reborn knew that the dame-Tsuna wouldn't want to get other people mixed up in his troubles. Although he wouldn't normally pay attention to Tsuna's whims, today was an exception.

Besides, even Reborn himself couldn't be sure that nothing would occur when Tsuna came back from the past. Illness, multiple wounds, on the verge of death – no matter what it was, Reborn had no idea. He couldn't pinpoint it out and he could not afford to guess either. There was a high possibility that Tsuna might even bring some unknown creature back together.

And then, there was also that thing with Giotto, the Vongola Primo. Reborn sighed.

"Everything is set!" Giannini announced, wiping his grease from his hands onto his pants and grabbed a piece of pizza to fill up his empty tummy which had been growling non-stop for the past five hours.

As if in reply to Giannini's statement, Reborn leapt down from the table and landed perfectly on the ground, one hand on his fedora hat to prevent it from falling. Leon landed onto his palm and Reborn raised his arm up so the green chameleon could climb back up onto his hat.

"I see. Then, let's wait. There's still another hour until the promised time."

Gokudera's head snapped up at Reborn's statement and he couldn't help but ask for the reason why they still had to wait, despite knowing the reason behind it. It was the promise Reborn made to Juudaime. Needless to say, everyone knew that time was of the essence here, especially after reading the real-life accounts and biographies of the different people who travelled back in time.

No one wanted to see Tsuna injured. He was their Boss, their leader – their friend.

"If you guys are really that worried, why don't you kill time or go around gathering useful stuff that Dame-Tsuna might need when he comes home?"

Home, because this was the exact place where Tsuna really belonged to. His time, his life, his future.

But even so, Reborn had no idea what was Tsuna's definition of the place, or which was going to be his decision.

Reborn stood directly in front of the time device and stared up at the machine. He was uneasy. He was used to knowing everything and guessing everything correctly. He was even proud to mention that he could tell exactly what a person was thinking within 0.00375 seconds.

But when he last saw his student – across the portal – Reborn was unable to read Tsuna's expression. He had no idea what the brunet's final decision would be.

All he could hope for, was that it was the right one.

_o0o0o_

"Asari-san, G-san," Tsuna greeted cheerily when he proceeded down the stairs. At the corner of the lounge was a stack of boxes of varying sizes – containing all the belongings that the people who would be moving over to the new Headquarters of Vongola.

The dark haired man looked up. For the first time since Tsuna seen him since he was hit by Lambo's ten year bazooka and travelled back to the past, Asari was wearing that long hat that reminded him of the time when he and his friends first sawthe Vongola familgia First Generation Guardians' will through Yamamoto's ring.

Needless to say, processing such thoughts made Tsuna miss home a little.

He wanted to go back to the peaceful days when his friends were all together and having fun.

Eating the cake that Kyoko-chan and Haru would bring over to his apartment, chasing after a crying Lambo while insisting that the kid must calm down already, hanging out all day and chatting with Gokudera and Yamamoto, and going over to Kokuyo land to find Chrome.

Smiling at his mother when she asked him how was school, trying desperately to keep up with all the different types of spartan training that his home-tutor Reborn could think up of, evading Bianchi when she was in the mood to try out a new dish for her poison cooking, or even making sure to not be late to school to escape the Head Prefect's wrath.

He found himself missing everything so much that he could hardly bring himself to believe it.

Tsuna knew that Reborn had provided him with the chance to do so – all he needed was the resolve to step through the portal that would be opened tonight – but something seemed to be preventing him from doing so.

"What's with this huge feast? Is it someone's birthday today?" Tsuna asked as he watched Kunckle taking the plate of freshly cooked food from Asari and placing it into the only space left on the table.

"Tch, why do you have to ask so many questions all the time?" G muttered angrily under his breath. "It's just to celebrate the official forming of Vongola and the fact that we are leaving this goddamn area that we spent the past few years in."

Asari laughed, patting G on his back. "Don't mind him. He is just upset that we are leaving this place! You should have heard Giotto telling the stories of the past. G took up three jobs for four months straight just to earn enough money to buy this place. It's his treasure!"

"Not!" G roared, slapping Asari's hand away. "Don't mock me, idiot!"

Tsuna laughed and wiped at the tears forming at the corner of his eyes. This was the first time that he saw G being so flustered and everyone smiling so happily that it seemed to be from the bottom of their hearts. All these were good for a change, and would certainly have been one of the best moments since he came to this era if not for the absence of one of the most important people around.

"Where's Giotto?"

"He went off to buy the other items needed," Asari answered simply and the brunet raised an eyebrow in curiosity. As far as he was concerned, there was hardly any other space around in the room to put food, and no one around looked like they were interested in playing around like little children.

"For?"

"For your farewell party TO THE EXTREME!" Knuckle answered loudly, adding a punch to the air for effect. "I only found out this morning that you will be leaving soon! Everyone is-"

Orange blasted through the door and in its wake stood Giotto, his dying will flame burning brightly on his forehead. His eyes were cold and unfeeling, as if they were looking at everything and yet nothing at all. He wasn't holding on to anything which resembled a present – in fact, Giotto wasn't holding anything at all.

"Don't say anymore than that, Knuckle. Didn't we all agree to keep it a secret from Tsuna?"

Knuckle opened his mouth to protest when a loud sound of a chair falling to the ground made him snap his head around to glance at Tsuna.

The brunet did not know why he was tearing up or why he was feeling the ache in the depths of his chest, but it was a fact that all of those things that he was actually feeling all the hazy emotions that he was trying to evade since he met with Reborn last night. Even though theoretically speaking, it wasn't an encounter.

"T-Tsuna?" Giotto reached out a hand to the boy in order to comfort him but unlike what he expected, Tsuna flinched upon contact. Quickly, the blond retracted his hand.

"How did all of you know about that? Why did you people decide to throw this party before I even decided anything by myself? D-Do you guys want me to leave that badly? Maybe my presence is really nothing but a nuisance and you prefer it if I'm gone?" Tsuna murmured while busy wiping away his tears.

He had no idea why he was even saying such things in the first place. It was not his intention to say such hurtful things, especially when they were merely only his own assumptions. There was no need for him to be so overly dramatic because there was no way that anyone would actually be thinking this way about him.

"That's because we... I..."

Without waiting for Giotto to finish his sentence, the brunet clenched his fist tightly and lowered his gaze to the floor. He did not want to face anyone right now, because he was sure that his eyes must be full of tears now and there was no way he could possibly show such an expression to anyone.

He did not want to ruin the mood in the room. Today was supposed to be a joyous event, right?

At the same time, Tsuna knew that he could not do anything, could not tell anyone anything, because his own mind was barely made up yet. To stay here or to leave – there was no way that he could make a decision so soon.

Everything was taking place way too fast. He wanted some time alone to sort out his thoughts, but there was no time for that. Tsuna understood at least that much.

Sensing the discomfort of the two, the other people in the room quickly understood the fact that the two of them wanted some time to themselves and they cleared out of the lounge.

"I have always known that I have to leave here someday," Tsuna whispered in a low voice so no one but Giotto could hear him. "But even so, I want to stay here, even if it's only for one second longer. Is this bad?"

Wanting to go back to the peaceful days of the past yet hoping to stay by Giotto's side forever – such a thing was surely unforgivable and would never be able allowed to happen. It was probably just due to his own selfishness which caused everything to drag on for so long.

"Yes, it's bad. I overheard your conversation with that guy 'Reborn' yesterday, and after thinking about it all night, I finally came to a decision. I know that it might be selfish of me to force this decision onto you, but I sincerely don't want you to disappear no matter what. I want you to stay alive, far longer than I can, so you must go back to your own time frame."

"But I-"

Without Giotto by his side, nothing will ever be the same again. Tsuna knew it, from the bottom of his heart. He would definitely not be able to smile like how he previously did anymore. He would certainly be...

"Fifteen minutes left," Giotto informed him.

Tsuna clenched his fists tighter, his arms trembling slightly. He opened his mouth slightly, but no sound came out. He could not bring himself to speak.

He barely noticed it when the blond placed something into his palm. It was cold and hard – metal. He curled his fingers over the object tightly so it nestled perfectly into his hand.

"It's probably still too early, but that's my present for you. Don't look at it until you reach home."

Understanding that this might be the last time he would be able to see Giotto face to face, Tsuna moved forward and wrapped his arms tightly around Giotto. He had to give a proper farewell.

"L... I like you, Giotto. I wish that I can stay here together with you forever and ever."

But, he had to leave. It was a fact.

The time frame was rejecting him. His body was weakening. He was dying.

Most importantly, he wanted to stay alive – for Giotto, for himself, for his friends.

Giotto ran a hand through Tsuna's brown locks and pressed his cheek against the top of the brunet's head. "I know, because I feel the same way too. I love you Tsuna, so promise me that you will live happily while holding these precious memories in your heart, because that's exactly what I'm going to do."

Then, there was that sound again. As if something was being ripped apart. Five, four, three, two...

"Dame-Tsuna. It's time."

His fingers tightened around Giotto's shirt and he could feel tears forming again. He didn't want to leave yet. Why was he even here in the first place?

"Tsunayoshi, look at me."

It was a simple request. Tsuna tilted his face up to stare into the mesmerizing cerulean eyes that told of so much sadness and bitterness - that held so much emotion in them.

Noticing that he got the brunet's attention, Giotto quickly leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Pink dusted his cheeks when Tsuna felt the blond running his tongue lightly against his bottom lip, once, before pulling away.

"Until we meet again, Decimo."

Primo. Founder. Boss. Ancestor. Giotto.

Tsuna still had so much he wanted to say, so many more things that he wanted to thank him for. But the blond refused to give him the chance to do so and pushed him harshly, and the brunet found himself falling backwards – into the portal and through that warm light.

Five seconds later, Tsuna found his back connecting with the hard ground and Giotto's face disappeared from view, as if nothing ever existed before. It wasn't fair! He did indeed go back into the past and met Giotto! There had to be proof of that, or was God telling him to forget everything?

"You are finally home, Juudaime!"

"Tsuna! Are you okay?"

"Boss..."

"Help me someone. Lemme down from here. I CAN'T TOLERATE ANYMORE!"

Gokudera and Yamamoto were by his side, as usual. Chrome was watching on silently, and Lambo was wailing like the spoilt brat he was. Hibari and Mukuro were nowhere to be seen. Giannini looked proud that the device he invented worked perfectly. And Reborn was, well, just Reborn.

"What is that in your hands, Dame-Tsuna? A gift?"

_It's probably still too early, but that's my present for you. Don't look at it until you reach home._

Giotto's present to him. Evidence that he went back in time. Proof that he met Giotto before.

Tsuna loosened his grip around the silver pocket watch, taking a moment to run his fingers across the the intricate design on the cover before flipping it open.

Inside, there was a small dying will flame burning brightly, speaking of hope. Tsuna didn't know why or how, but he could tell that it belonged to Giotto. Even though it was just his gut feeling – part of his Hyper Intuition – because he could feel that it was different from his own flame.

Tsuna was about to close the pocket watch when two words on the back of the cover caught his interest. The brunet tilted the gift so he could peer at the words more closely. But when he did, Tsuna could help but feel like crying all over again.

『永愛』

Of everything else that the stupid blond could have wrote... Tsuna pulled the pendant around his neck out as his other hand traced the two characters stroke after stroke.

Stupid Primo. Stupid Founder. Stupid...

"Giotto."

* * *

**Author's notes: **For all of you who don't know Chinese or Japanese Kanji, 永愛 means eternal love (Romaji: ei ai) Just wanted to put it there because I thought that it was sweet for Giotto to write something like that when he does not know Japanese (meaning he had to research about it all on his own ^^)

And somehow, I have the temptation to end this fanfiction here, but if anyone wants it to be a happy ending, please tell me so! For the time being, I'll leave it as 'ongoing', but if no one wants me to, I'll change it to 'complete' in a week.

Thank you for reading and please review.


End file.
